FRASERVILLE, ON — Ontario’s top three-year-olds have cleared the first hurdle toward Grassroots glory, and are gearing up for a slate of eight $30,000 Semifinals this Thursday, Oct. 18 at Kawartha Downs.

The second hurdle is a top four finish in Thursday’s Semifinal, and trainer Per Henriksen is feeling confident that trotting colt Keystone Empire has the talent required to advance through to the Championship round.

“He’s certainly been behaving very good lately. It seems like he’s healthy and ready to go,” says the Norwood, ON resident, who shares ownership on the colt with his partner Ann Karin Larsen of Norwood, and Herbert Sopenoff and Three Amigos of Long Beach, NY. “I trained him today a little bit and everything seems fine, so let’s hope everything goes right.”

Keystone Empire heads into the second trotting colt Semifinal riding a three race win streak. In 20 starts the Angus Hall boasts seven wins, three seconds and three thirds, and posted his personal best 1:56.3 over the Kawartha oval in a July 24 overnight contest. In five regular season Grassroots starts the colt earned three trophies and one second for a total of 175 points and second spot in the division standings.

Henriksen will pilot Keystone Empire from Post 6 in the seventh race, and says he will decide on strategy once the starting car pulls away from the field.

“Most of the time they go more than they should in these races. Everybody wants to be in position, of course,” notes the horseman. “He can leave pretty good, or you can race him from behind. Training at home here and warming up he can be a little on the bit, but when he gets in a race he’s absolutely perfect. He drives with two fingers.”

Doug Hie is also hoping that versatility is one of the keys to success on Thursday. The Fraserville resident will pilot trotting filly Hi Edith from Post 5 in the third race, and says handiness has been one of the Earl daughter’s greatest assets this season.

“She’s very easy to drive. You can leave with her, or take her off; you can do whatever you want with her,” he says. “She’s big and strong, and she’s just a nice filly.”

Hie shares ownership on the filly with his brother, and the filly’s trainer, Roger Hie of Cobourg, and the pair have engineered six wins, three seconds and one third in 13 starts for the young trotter. In the Grassroots regular season Hi Edith rang up three wins, one second and one fourth in five starts for a total of 183 points and fifth spot in the standings.

“She’s got everything right now you could want, except high speed,” notes Hie. “She hasn’t shown that 1:56 or 1:55 speed. She’s shown fast pieces, but not 1:56 or 1:55 speed, just steady.

“But she’s made $48,000 being steady and there are horses that have trotted in 1:56 or 1:55 that have not made that,” he adds.

Trainer Bob McIntosh qualified a trio of steady pacing fillies for the Grassroots post season, and is expecting all of them to make a strong showing at Kawartha on Thursday. Playin With Magic and Magic Maverick will square off from Posts 1 and 6 in the first $30,000 Semifinal, and Breathdefying gets Post 3 in the second elimination.

“She probably could go with the Gold fillies, if we had taken that route,” says McIntosh of Breathdefying, the Intrepid Seelster filly he bred and owns in partnership with Dave Boyle of Bowmanville, ON and C S X Stables of Liberty Center, OH. “But they are a heck of a bunch of tough fillies in the Gold, so we just elected to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.”

In the Grassroots pond Breathdefying collected two wins in two Grassroots starts, one in the May 22 season opener at Georgian Downs, and one in the Oct. 4 regular season wrap-up at Hiawatha Horse Park.

Owner Robert Hamather and trainer Bill Elliott also opted to swim in the Grassroots pond with pacer Wholly Louy this season. The Camluck son tried his hand against the Gold Series horses on three occasions, delivering a Gold Elimination win and a third in the Final at Georgian Downs in July and a seventh in elimination action at Mohawk Racetrack in August, but Elliott and Hamather felt his gifts would be put to better use in the Grassroots program.

“He seems to stand out. That’s why we raced him mostly in the Grassroots,” explains Hamather. “We tried him in the Gold, but he doesn’t race as well off the pace as he does going for the lead.”

Driver Brad Forward has said the third generation product of Hamather’s breeding program is the fastest horse in the division off the starting gate, and Wholly Louy will be looking to prove the reinsman right from Post 8 in the eighth race on Thursday.

“I just hope he does all right and gets into the Final any way,” says Hamather, who makes his home in Exeter, ON. “That (Post 8) will be tough.”

Kawartha Downs sends its first race onto the racetrack at 7 pm on Thursday, before turning things over to the Grassroots stars in Races 2 through 9. The top four finishers from each Semifinal will return to the Fraserville oval on Saturday, Oct. 27 for their respective $100,000 Grassroots Championship.

For complete results please go to:

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