FRASERVILLE, ON — Kawartha Downs hosts the most exciting division in the Ontario Sires Stakes program on Tuesday evening, as 63 sophomore pacing colts compete in Grassroots action at the Fraserville oval.
With just two events remaining in the regular season, competition will be fierce in Tuesday’s event as the colts take aim on one of 16 positions in the Grassroots Semifinal. Among the colts engaged in a dog fight for a post season berth is Another Jiffy, owned by Murray Wade of Sunderland and Donald Scott of Port Perry.
“This race Tuesday will tell the story,” notes Wade, adding, “He’s drawn tough, he’s drawn the eight-hole.”
Through four Grassroots starts Another Jiffy boasts a record of one win, one second and one fifth for a point tally of 80. The current cut off for the Semifinal is 75 points, so the Village Jiffy son will be looking for another top five finish to maintain his position among the point leaders.
While reluctant to extol the colt’s virtues, Wade is hopeful that the pacer can overcome the outside post and deliver another solid effort over his local oval. In his last start, on Sept. 4, Another Jiffy cruised around the Fraserville oval on the front end to post a two and one quarter length victory in a personal best 1:56.
“He likes the front, but he can race the other way too, and he’s going to have to on Tuesday,” says the long time horseman. “I think he’s got the ability to do it.”
Ten days prior to his Kawartha Downs victory trainer Marshal Peter Houck sent the colt to Woodbine Racetrack for an overnight event and Another Jiffy delivered a solid effort, pacing his own mile in 1:52.4 and impressing driver Mike Saftic.
“We raced him at Woodbine, Mike Saftic drove him, and he went in 1:52.4. After the race Mike said, �Tell you what, if that horse could have got out he could have won it,'” recalls Wade. “And the mile went in 1:50.4.”
John Thomson will return to the race bike on Tuesday and the Kawartha Downs regular will have his eyes peeled for two-time Grassroots winner XLB Joker from Post 6. Both colts will face an uphill battle to add another Grassroots victory to their resume as the other seven colts in the tenth race attempt to keep their post season hopes alive.
Other local colts hoping to appear in the winner’s circle at their hometown oval are Shady’s Albert, who starts from Post 9 in the first $15,962 division and Toby T Killean, who gets Post 9 in the fourth race. Melville McKee of Peterborough owns Shady’s Albert, while Todd James of Blackstock and Peter Evans of Baldwin share ownership on Toby T Killean.
The first Grassroots division for the three-year-old pacing colts goes postward at 4 pm on Tuesday with the other six divisions featured as Races 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, and 10 on Kawartha Downs’ late afternoon program.