SARNIA, ON — Competition will be fierce at Hiawatha Horse Park on Saturday night as the two-year-old pacing colts enter the final stages of their Grassroots season. Only the top 16 point earners from the regular season advance to the Grassroots Semifinal round and with two events remaining the last eight spots are very much up for grabs.
Among the youngsters hoping to shore up their point total with a big effort on Saturday night is Peter Core trainee Bringhomethemoney. The Bo Knows Jate colt captured a division of the season opening Grassroots and added 16 more points with fourth-place finishes at Hanover Raceway on July 13 and Dresden Raceway on Sept. 2 for a total of 66 points, good enough for ninth spot in the division standings.
Bringhomethemoney heads into Saturday’s battle from an off the board finish against older horses at Hiawatha Horse Park on Sept. 14 and Core hopes that the equipment changes he has made since then will aid the colt in producing a big effort from Post 2 in the eighth race.
“I got up on the outside (Sept. 14) and he wouldn’t steer on the turns. He kept bearing in and running into guys,” recalls Core. “With the changes I’ve made he’s steering better on the turns now, but it could have just been mud in his face, I don’t know.”
Core, who shares ownership on Bringhomethemoney with breeders Bri Pat Investments Ltd. of Forest, his father Raymond Core of Wyoming and Ronald Bailey of London, adds that he is still searching for the perfect equipment arrangement to make it easier to manage the colt’s natural speed.
“He’s a tough little horse to drive. I have made six different bridle changes in the last six times I’ve trained him and I haven’t seen any improvement,” says the trainer-driver. “I keep thinking one of these is going to make some difference, and it did a little, but it didn’t, if you know what I mean.
“He has a lot of speed this colt, just managing it, developing him into a racehorse and managing the speed, is the biggest thing right now.”
The Wyoming resident hopes that Bringhomethemoney’s gifts shine at Hiawatha, but he and his partners are willing to wait if it takes another six months of maturity before the youngster reaches his full potential.
“The objective is to make a racehorse out of him, and he will be a racehorse,” says Core. “We may have to wait until he’s three, but the season’s not over yet. He’s a game little horse.”
Among the colts Bringhomethemoney will face on Saturday is Daylon Alert, who is undefeated in two Grassroots starts and heads into the Hiawatha event off a fifth-place finish in the Nassagaweya Stake at Mohawk Racetrack on Sept. 14. Bob McIntosh trains the Camluck son, who sits in a tie for fourth in the division standings, for Robert Waxman of Ancaster.
Hiawatha Horse Park welcomes the two-year-old pacing colts to its five-eighths mile oval in Races 1, 2, 3, 8, and 10 with the first race rolling in behind the starting gate at 7:10 pm on Saturday.