ELORA, ON — Wayne Henry sent three colts to Grand River Raceway last week for the two-year-old trotting colt Gold Series season opener and took home one runner-up cheque and two third-place cheques. Unfortunately, only the top two finishers from each elimination return to the Elora oval on Monday, July 23 for the $130,000 Gold Final, so the hopes of the Henry Stable rest solely on the shoulders of White Hot.

“He’s not a bad little horse,” says Henry. ” But how good he is, I do not know.”

White Hot carved all the fractions in his elimination last week and then got caught at the wire by Hot And Coldplay and had to settle for second in the 2:03.2 mile. The son of Berndt Hanover and Jayport Whimsey also finished second in his Flamboro Breeders Stake division at Flamboro Downs on July 4, sitting in the middle of the pack and closing to pick up the runner-up share behind Sergeant York.

A half brother to $1.5 million winner Abbey Road C, White Hot was a $13,000 yearling purchase at last fall’s Forest City Yearling Sale. Arthur residents Wayne and Trevor Henry share ownership on the young trotter with Shawn Dixon of London.

“He wasn’t really fitted up that great,” recalls Henry. “We took a chance on him at $13,000. He’s an average size, a nice size, he’s got a good gait to him and a good attitude. He stays a little underweight, but you can’t have everything.

“I liked the Smedshammer colt better myself, but he didn’t make the Final,” says the trainer of the Angus Hall colt that, along with stablemate Striker Springs, finished third in the elimination round and will watch from the sidelines Monday.

Trevor Henry will steer White Hot from Post 4 for the second start in a row, and Wayne Henry says he’d like to see the pair right where they were last week.

“I’d like to see him right on the front end, that’s the shortest route,” says the trainer, with a chuckle. “They’re all a pretty competitive bunch, luck will play a lot in how the race unfolds.”

Anthony MacDonald is hoping Rapid Strategy did not use up all his luck in the post position draw. The son of King Conch and Rapid Sahbra will start from the advantageous Post 1 and MacDonald expects the gelding to be better on Monday than he was in the elimination round.

“He bruised a foot the morning of the race out in the field, and we didn’t know what to think going into the race,” admits the Guelph resident, who shares ownership on Rapid Strategy with Frank Cirillo of Mississauga. “It was a small bruise, you couldn’t see anything on his hoof, but when you put the tester on it was quite a bit sore.”

In spite of the bruise, Rapid Strategy managed a runner-up finish to Mr Mission, and MacDonald has spent the last three days working hard to get the gelding back on top of his game.

“I trained him a slow mile today and he seemed great. He trained great and he came out of it great,” says the trainer-driver. “I expect him to race good with the rail.”

MacDonald and Cirillo purchased Rapid Strategy, whose mother is a half-sister to successful Ontario stallion Striking Sahbra, for just $7,500 and the pair have been excited about the young trotter’s prospects since the first day he donned a harness.

“For a young horse who is very green, he’s very smart, very solid, he likes his work — he has the attitude of a racehorse,” says MacDonald. “He does everything that a good horse does, so I can only assume that he’s going to be a good horse. He has all the tools, it’s just up to him to use them.”

Rapid Strategy will put his gifts to work from Post 1 in the ninth race at Grand River Raceway on Monday. He and White Hot will face elimination winners Hot And Coldplay, Keystone Titan, Across All Borders and Mr Mission from Posts 2, 3, 5, and 8 respectively. Racing gets under way at the Elora oval at 7:30 pm.

For complete entries please go to:

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/egrvrmo.html#N9