ELORA, ON — Ontario’s exciting three-year-old pacing colts will mark the end of summer at Grand River Raceway on Labour Day Monday, competing for a total of $107,330 in seven Grassroots divisions.

With just two regular season events remaining, several colts are in a heated battle for one of 16 spots in the Grassroots post season. With a total of 60 points earned through four starts, Rustling Matt sits just two points below the current cut off for the top 16 and will be looking for a strong result from Post 5 in the fifth race.

“I was hoping he’d get inside, the one or two hole. That would have helped him out a lot,” says Ariss resident Paul Kurtz, who shares ownership on the gelding with his wife Joan Kurtz of Ariss and trainer Gregg McNair of Guelph. “Now he’s going to have to work for it.”

Rustling Matt heads into the $15,390 division off a less than impressive seventh place showing in an overnight at Grand River on Aug. 25, but Kurtz is hoping the homebred son of Rustler Hanover and Matt Scan will bounce back to the winning form he displayed at the Elora oval on Aug. 4 and at Hiawatha Horse Park on Aug. 10 where he posted his first Grassroots win of the season.

“It looks like he likes to race from the middle,” explains Kurtz. “He raced good in Sarnia, then he raced at Grand River and they took him to the back and he just wasn’t interested in racing from the back.”

Unraced at two, Rustling Matt has 12 starts under his belt this season and sports a record of four wins and one third. His 1:54.1 personal best came at Woodbine Racetrack on May 15 in his second lifetime start. The gelding captured two of his first three starts, but a tough outing at Windsor in the Grassroots season opener knocked the young pacer off his game through the month of June.

“I don’t know what happened when he went to Windsor. He had a tough race and it seemed to knock the wind out of him for a couple of starts,” says Kurtz. “I don’t know if he caught a bug or what.”

Whatever is was, Kurtz hopes Rustling Matt has shaken it off and is ready to make a leap up the division standings on Monday.

“I hope Matt would do all right at Grand River,” says the horseman. “Let’s hope he gets a break, because that’s what you need in this racing game.”

Elmira resident Jim McClure will pilot Rustling Matt from Post 5 in the fifth race on Monday, facing off against a talented field that includes former Gold Series competitor Golden Standard from Post 2 and Grassroots newcomer Semalu Non Stop from Post 6.

Post time for Grand River Raceway’s Labour Day Monday program is 7:30 pm and the talented three-year-old pacing colts will wage their second last Grassroots battle in Races 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 10.

For complete entries please go to:

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/egrvrmo.html