INNISFIL, ON — Robert Fellows had a master plan for Indiana Hall’s sophomore season, and the trainer admits that this Saturday’s Gold Eliminations at Georgian Downs were not part of his original strategy. However, a runner-up finish in last weekend’s Gold Final earned the trotter a second run at the province’s major players.

“He’s a small horse and he’s better on a small track, so our plan was just to race him on the half-mile, but it’s hard after you finish second not to try this week,” says Fellows. “He doesn’t want anything to do with those big horses on a big track, but because he was second the other night we’ll give him another shot.”

A two-time Grassroots winner, Indiana Hall made his debut in the Gold Series at Flamboro Downs on Aug. 12 and scored an impressive 1:57.3 victory in his elimination. Back at the Dundas half-mile for the Aug. 20 Gold Final, the Striking Sahbra son finished second in a track and Ontario Sires Stakes record mile by division leader Majestic Son.

Indiana Hall will make his third Gold Series start from Post 4 in the fourth race at Georgian Downs on Saturday, facing off against a tough field that includes Majestic Son from Post 8, last year’s champion Was It A Dream from Post 7 and Flamboro Gold Elimination winner Yorktown Gunner from Post 1.

“It should be a good horse race,” says Fellows, who trains Indiana Hall for Aurora resident Edward James’s S S G Stables of North Boston, NY. “We’re in with the best one, and he’s got the eight-hole, and Was It A Dream has the seven.”

Indiana Hall’s win and second in the Flamboro Downs Gold event boosted the gelding into seventh spot in the division standings, but Fellows says it is highly unlikely that the petite trotter will pursue the big guns all the way to the Oct. 14 Super Final. With two wins and one second, the gelding is currently in a two-way tie for third in the Grassroots standings and Fellows says a return to Flamboro Downs for the Sept. 29 Grassroots Semifinals is a more plausible path.

“As of right now, if the Grassroots Final was next week I’d go there,” says the Rockwood resident. “This colt has trotted as much on a small track as he has on a big track. I tried him at Mohawk early, but where he trotted in 1:57.2, Majestic Son has gone in 1:52 or 1:53.”

Fellows hopes that Indiana Hall’s early speed and manoeuvrability will serve the trotter well again on Saturday and land him a berth in the Sept. 2 Gold Final. The top four finishers from each Gold Elimination, plus one fifth-place finisher selected by random draw, will return to Georgian Downs for the second last $130,000 Gold Final on the three-year-old trotting colt’s schedule.

“He’s got good gate speed and he’s handy,” notes Fellows. “He’s a nice little horse. He’ll probably be a nice preferred type horse on a half-mile track as he gets older.”

Georgian Downs fans will catch Indiana Hall and his high flying peers in Race 4 on Saturday night, with the other Gold Elimination going postward as Race 6. The Innisfil oval’s first race rolls up behind the starting gate at 7:35 pm.

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