DUNDAS, ON — Ontario’s talented three-year-old pacing colts will flex their muscles at Flamboro Downs on Saturday in their last regular season Grassroots event.

Sitting nine points below the current cut off for a berth in the Sept. 30 Grassroots Semifinal, Actor and part-owner Mark MacDonald will be leaving it all on the racetrack in Saturday’s fourth race as they try to claw their way back into the post season picture.

“He had been right in the middle of the pack, except for that last start,” says trainer Brian MacInnis, who shares ownership on Actor with Cambridge resident MacDonald and Hal Bevan of Charlottetown, PEI. “We were a little disappointed with him.”

With one win, one third and one fourth in his first three Grassroots starts, Actor was sitting fourteenth heading into the Sept. 4 event at Grand River Raceway, but a lacklustre fourth-place finish saw the Astreos son fall out of the top 16. A subsequent trip to the veterinarian indicated that the gelding was battling an equine virus, so MacInnis went to work on getting Actor healthy in time for Saturday’s contest.

“We scoped him and he showed up a little bit sick,” recalls the Stoney Creek resident. “We’ve been treating him and he trained good this week. I usually train them two days out, but I trained him yesterday (Tuesday), and he trained good.”

The only hitch in MacInnis’s plan to propel Actor back into the top 16 came with the post position draw. While Actor will benefit from Post 3, he faces a tough field that includes Gold Series veteran Banana Joe’s Bar and three other colts above the current post season cut off of 87 points.

“He’s done his best work on the engine, he won at Georgian Downs in 1:54.3 on the engine, but in with that company he would probably need a trip,” says the horseman. “That Banana Joe’s Bar is an awful nice horse.

“I think Mark usually drives that horse (Banana Joe’s Bar), he may be a bit disappointed he’s got to drive his own,” adds MacInnis with a chuckle.

MacInnis will also harness second time Grassroots starter Camemorative Year on Saturday, and while that colt landed an easier division than his stablemate, he will be hampered for the second straight week by the outside Post 8.

“When the draw came out I was really disappointed,” admits MacInnis. “I would love to have seen him draw better.

“The owner actually just bought that horse probably six weeks ago from Bob McIntosh, and he raced fairly decent in the two races he’s been in since we got him.”

Since being acquired by Windsor resident Donald Kevin Gillis, Camemorative Year has one fourth and one fifth to his credit in spite of being parked to the quarter-pole in :26.3 at Georgian Downs on Aug. 29 and battling from Post 8 in his Sept. 4 Grassroots debut at Grand River Raceway.

“He’s a very game horse. He has a very big heart,” says the trainer. “He’s an extremely nice horse, a very well broke, good horse.”

Paul Mackenzie will pilot Camemorative Year on Saturday, facing off against a field that includes the fifth, ninth and fourteenth ranked colts in the division.

Post time at Flamboro Downs on Saturday is 4 pm and the three-year-old pacing colts will engage in their final Grassroots battles in Races 1, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9.

For complete entries please go to:

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