SARNIA, ON — Hiawatha Horse Park plays host to the golden boys of summer on Thursday, Aug. 10, welcoming nine divisions of three-year-old pacing colts for their fourth Grassroots event.
Among the colts hoping to add to their point tally as the second half of the Grassroots season gets under way are a pair trained by Sarnia resident Jim Ainsworth. Snap Out Of It has already established himself among the top 16 point earners with one win and two thirds in the first three events of the season, while stablemate Justice Cam sits five points below the current cut off for a post season berth.
Snap Out Of It starts from Post 5 in the eighth race on Thursday and Ainsworth expects the mid-field post will suit the colt’s come-from-behind style.
“He’s got no real gate speed, but if he can get away in the middle of the pack and get into the flow early he’ll be heard from,” says the trainer. “He’ll definitely be heard from at the end.”
Ainsworth shares ownership on Snap Out Of It with driver Reg Gassien of Lindsay, Claude Pearson of Tilbury and William Boden of Vancouver, BC. Through 15 starts this season the son of Camluck and Armbro Snapshot has accumulated four wins, one second, five fifths and $45,060, enough that Ainsworth has struggled to find appropriate races for the young pacer. Since the May 31 Grassroots season opener the colt has raced just six times.
“He came up a little sick after the one Sires Stake and we ended up with a few weeks off, but trying to find races for him is the problem,” explains Ainsworth. “He’s got $40,000 or $50,000 on his card and he’s not really good enough for Toronto, but he has too much money for everywhere else.”
Snap Out Of It heads into the Hiawatha Grassroots off a solid outing at Mohawk Racetrack on July 31 that saw him finish second in a 1:52.1 mile.
Justice Cam also prepped for Thursday’s contest with a July 31 overnight at Mohawk, finishing fifth in a 1:52.1 mile and Ainsworth says that underwhelming effort illustrates the problem he has had all season with the Camluck colt.
“It just depends on which horse shows up,” says the horseman. “He’s good one race, then the next race he’s flat.”
Through 11 starts Justice Cam has recorded three wins, five seconds and one third for earnings of $34,200. In the first two Grassroots events the colt finished second, giving him a total of 50 points, but his efforts to move up the point standings on Thursday will be hampered by the outside Post 9.
“The nine-hole is definitely not going to help him,” says Ainsworth, who shares ownership on Justice Cam with Charles Lawrence of Blenheim, Martwest Racing Stable of Mississauga and Boden.
Post time at Hiawatha Horse Park on Thursday evening is 7:30 pm and the exciting three-year-old pacing colts will take over the Sarnia oval’s program in Races 6 through 14.
For complete entries please go to:
http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/esarfth.html