ELORA, ON — Grand River Raceway kicks off its 2008 Ontario Sires Stakes season this Monday, May 19 with nine Grassroots divisions for the electric three-year-old pacing colts.

Fergus resident Rene Bourassa will send Constant Craving after a share of Grassroots glory from Post 4 in the second $20,000 Grassroots contest. A winner of one Grassroots event last season, Constant Craving boasts a record of four wins in five starts since his return to the races in late March.

“He has five starts in him already, so he’s pretty tight,” notes Bourassa, who trains the colt for M & S Racing Stable Inc. of Rockwood. “He has raced pretty good.”

Constant Craving’s most recent visit to the winner’s circle came on May 13 at Kawartha Downs, where he bested a non-winners of $30,000 field with a 1:53.2 effort. He captured the non-winners of $35,000 class at Grand River on April 21 and 28, and kicked off his sophomore campaign with a win at Mohawk Racetrack on March 24.

Bourassa purchased Constant Craving at the Tattersalls January Mixed Sale after watching a replay of the colt’s Aug. 18, 2007 Grassroots victory at Hanover Raceway. Impressed with the Camluck son’s performance over the Hanover half-mile, Bourassa was the winning bidder at $31,000, a price that looks eminently reasonable in hindsight.

“I had bid on four horses over $100,000 and didn’t get them,” recalls Bourassa. “This horse was in the last numbers; it was a good thing I looked at the replay. The way he turned the corner at Hanover was what caught my eye. Bruce Richardson drove him that night and he turned the first corner like an old horse. I said, �That’s something nice.’

“I paid only $31,000 for him and it looks like I got a good horse for that money,” he adds.

Constant Craving has already returned $22,870 of his purchase price and could bump his owners into the black with a successful outing on Monday. Brad Forward will steer the colt in the season opener, and Bourassa expects the pair to be hustling to the front early from their mid-field post.

“He can leave really hard, this horse,” explains the trainer. “I think my horse can get to the front there, especially with Brad Forward as a driver.”

Bourassa says that Constant Craving will give Forward all the speed he needs to get to the front, as long as the reinsman asks for it.

“He’s the kind of horse if you ask, he goes right away, but if you don’t ask, he doesn’t spend any energy for nothing. He’s a very relaxed horse.”

The horseman adds that Constant Craving’s relaxed nature makes him a pleasure to work around most of the time, but has occasionally caused some frustration on the training track.

“When he jogs he’s like a snake on the track. He’s hard to drive, his neck is like a rubber neck, he goes side to side,” explains Bourassa. “I’ve never had a horse like him. He takes up a lot of space on the track. The people who follow you think you don’t know what you are doing.”

The quirky colt and his peers will illuminate Grand River Raceway’s Victoria Day program from Races 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. Post time at the Elora oval on Monday, May 19 is 7:30 pm.

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