REXDALE, ON — When the three-year-old trotting colts arrive at Woodbine Racetrack on Friday evening for their last Gold Series Eliminations, the pressure will be on the top colts to lock up a place in next week’s Gold Final and the season ending Super Final.

The only colt not feeling any pressure is first time Gold starter Durable Duke, who earned his way into Friday’s contest of a series of four solid races at Mohawk Racetrack over the last five weeks.

“He just seemed to switch into another gear in the last month or so,” explains trainer Pat Hunt of Cambridge, who shares ownership on the gelding with breeder Glengate Farms of Campbellville.

Unraced at two, Durable Duke made his career debut on June 13 at Flamboro Downs and has logged 11 starts in the last four months, recording three wins and one second-place finish. A 2:05.1 winner in his third start, Durable Duke picked up cheques in his next five starts, but never really impressed Hunt until he arrived at Mohawk Racetrack for an overnight event on Sept. 13.

Durable Duke finished fourth in that non-winners contest, but trotted home in :27.4, more than a full second faster than any fraction he had ever posted. Back in the same class one week later, the Duke Of York son found his way to the winner’s circle with a 1:57.4 effort, and then replicated both the result and the time on Sept. 27.

“I got him about this time last year, and he just plodded along. I didn’t even try and train him, because I knew he didn’t want to do it,” recalls Hunt. “I’d just brush him little pieces, a little further every time. Early in the spring I thought I’d brush him a quarter; and we were all out going a quarter in 37 seconds.”

Even as he prepared Durable Duke to qualify, Hunt still had doubts about the gelding’s ability. It was not until driver Mario Baillargeon hopped off the race bike after the trotter’s first race that Hunt had any indication that Durable Duke was actually making some progress.

“His first start Mario drove him, and he got off the bike and said, �This horse is going to be a good horse,'” recalls Hunt. “I kind of looked at him and said, �Yeah, right.’

“He plugged along another couple starts and I put him in the Grassroots at Hiawatha and that was the first time he impressed me, the way he finished his mile there,” continues the trainer.

Durable Duke finished fourth in his Grassroots debut, closing from sixth at the top of the Hiawatha Horse Park stretch, and followed it up with a fifth-place finish in an Aug. 23 overnight at Mohawk, so Hunt sent him back into the Grassroots fray at Grand River Raceway on Aug. 31. The half-brother to $238,030 winner Brancaleone lagged well behind his peers to finish fifth, and Hunt again wondered if he was wasting his time.

“It kind of took the wind out of my sails,” he recalls. “Then I brought him to Mohawk and the first time Randy (Waples) drove him, he said the same thing, �This is going to be a nice horse.’ I just looked at him, but since then he has kind of impressed me in every start.”

Hunt and Glengate’s Jim Bullock decided to give Durable Duke one last crack at the Ontario Sires Stakes program, and he will tackle a field of Gold Series regulars from Post 8 in the first race on Woodbine Racetrack’s 7:40 pm program Friday. Among the colts who will be looking for a top five finish in the first $55,290 elimination are former Gold Final winners Laddie and Beer Budget from Posts 1 and 4, and Ontario Sires Stakes record holder San Pail from Post 7.

The second elimination goes postward as Race 6, on a stakes laden evening that also features two Goldsmith Maid eliminations for the freshman trotting fillies and a pair of Three Diamonds eliminations for the two-year-old pacing fillies.

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