CAMPBELLVILLE, ON — An impressive line up of sophomore trotting colts will wrap up a three day showcase of the Ontario Sires Stakes program at Mohawk Racetrack on Saturday night. The $130,000 contest follows Gold Final events for the two-year-old trotting colts on Thursday and the two-year-old pacing colts on Friday evening, giving Campbellville and area fans a glimpse of what they will see on the $2.4 million Super Final Night next month.
Saturday’s Gold Final wraps up the regular season for the three-year-old trotting colts and Keith Jones and George Charlton would love to see Abbey Road C complete his recent renascence with a second Gold Final victory.
After struggling through his two-year-old season and the first few starts of his sophomore campaign without achieving the on-track results Jones and Charlton knew he was capable of, they decided to add trotting hopples to the gelding’s equipment and the results have been nothing short of phenomenal. In the eight starts since Abbey Road C qualified with the hopples he has only been bested once, finishing second in the Aug. 10 Gold Elimination at Flamboro Downs to division leader Semper Fi Hall, and he has shown no sign of the kind of breaks in stride that were becoming his trademark in the first three Gold events.
“We had our problems as a two-year-old,” recalls Charlton. “So this year when he started to show some breaks we went to the trotting hopples right away and that seemed to solve the problem. Once he got a on a roll he’s been great, he’s just been a fantastic horse.”
The Incredible Abe son will put his four race win streak on the line from Post 4 on Saturday night, but both Jones and Charlton say post position has become irrelevant since the addition of the hopples.
“It doesn’t seem to matter what hole he gets,” says Charlton, who resides in Utopia. “He can leave enough and he seems to wind up on top, at least by the quarter pole, then he just keeps on going. He should be able to handle them.”
Abbey Road C captured his elimination last weekend by a six length margin in 1:54.4, just one-fifth of a second slower than the Ontario Sires Stakes record set by Rotation in the first elimination, and after the race Jones said he had some power in reserve.
“He just keeps cutting it down. He came off the Barrie race (Sept. 20), it was just a warm-up race for him and he went in 1:56.1, and then last week he went in 1:54.4 and Keith Jones felt the horse could go more,” says Charlton. “He won by six, but Jones shut him down in the last sixteenth because they weren’t getting to him.”
Since Abbey Road C captured the Dream Of Glory Stake at Hanover Raceway on Aug. 3, prospective buyers have been beating a path to Charlton’s door, but the 25 year veteran of the trotting colt game has no intentions of selling the gelding and hopes to race him as a four-year-old if everything works out according to plan.
“He’s getting better all the time and he’s sound as a bell and he enjoys what he does. Horses like him just don’t come along every day,” he says. “We feel he can go on and take them on as a four-year-old downtown. We’ll give him the chance to anyway.”
Abbey Road C will face the other elimination winner Rotation from Post 2 on Saturday and Jones will also be keeping an eye out for the consistent Semper Fi Hall from Post 6 and Duke Of York from Post 7.
The first call to the post is sounded at 7:40 pm on Saturday night and the three-year-old trotting colts will bring the Mohawk Racetrack fans to their feet in Race 3.