SARNIA, ON — Hiawatha Horse Park concludes its August series of Ontario Sires Stakes racing on Thursday evening with six Grassroots divisions for the two-year-old trotting colts.
Trainer Dan Creighton of Strathroy heads to the Sarnia oval with a pair of Balanced Image colts, including $150,000 yearling purchase Extreme Image who has already posted one second and one third in Grassroots action.
“He is a full brother to Captain Brady ($148,580),” says Creighton. “He’s just maturing. I get the feeling he’s just starting to put it together. I look for him to have a good fall.”
Extreme Image made his racing debut in the second Grassroots event, July 21 at Flamboro Downs, where he finished third in a 2:04.2 mile. At Hanover Raceway the colt recovered from a break at the half to finish second with a 2:08.4 clocking.
“He made a break at Hanover, but the driver (Tony Kerwood) tells me there was a little bit of interference,” says the trainer. “I’m looking for a good performance from him on Thursday.”
Terry and Dave Hudson of Strathroy own Extreme Image and were part of the ownership group on Captain Brady, who has taken the partners on the thrill ride to end all thrill rides in the last two years. Brilliant performances followed by heart wrenching breaks followed by solid qualifiers have formed an unending cycle in the trotter’s career, but Creighton says so far Extreme Image has caused them much less heartburn.
“He’s a very different kind of horse. He’s more reliable. He hasn’t shown yet the explosive speed like Captain Brady, but he’s a lot more mild mannered, his temperament is much cooler,” explains the trotting specialist. “Captain Brady is not crazy like everyone thinks, he’s just super competitive and in the heat of battle he just sometimes loses it. This horse is not like that. He’s patient and he’s pretty smart.”
Creighton admits that his decision to start Extreme Image in the Grassroots Series may have been subconsciously rooted in his experiences with Captain Brady.
“I hadn’t really given it much thought, but maybe in the back of my mind some of the nightmares with him (Captain Brady) were still in my mind when I was trying to give this horse an easy start,” he reflects. “Those are important races those first few starts. They need to get good experiences and it’s a lot harder to teach them when you are going for $130,000 than when you are going for $15,000.”
Creighton will continue Extreme Image’s education from Post 2 in the eighth race on Thursday, while Amarillo makes his second start in the Grassroots program from Post 3 in Race 4.
Like his stablemate, Amarillo made a break in the Aug. 11 event at Hanover Raceway, but was unable to recover as easily and finished well behind the leaders. As a result Creighton opted to requalify the colt with trotting hopples on Aug. 19.
“There was a big mix-up in that race. They all made a break, every horse in the race,” says the trainer. “He’s a nice colt, but he’s pretty aggressive so I qualified him with the trotting hopples to see if we could give him some confidence and security. I think he can go faster in his mind than his legs can carry him right now. He’s a pretty nice horse, we have hopes for him.”
Creighton and his partners in the Danterra Racing Stable of Strathroy and Tri Star Farms Ltd. of Brantford share ownership on Amarillo, a $23,000 US acquisition at the Harrisburg, PA sale.
Hiawatha Horse Park sends it’s first race behind the gate at 7:30 pm on Thursday with the two-year-old trotting colts stepping up for their fourth Grassroots event in Races 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.