LONDON, ON — Ontario’s talented two-year-old trotting colts wrapped up their Grassroots season at Western Fair Raceway on Saturday night with Hieway Earl posting the fastest win of three divisions for trainer Roger Hie of Cobourg and Hielite Acres Inc. of Fraserville.
The Earl son and driver Carman Hie tailed local favourites Best Ball and Ross Battin through fractions of :30.1, 1:02.2 and 1:33.4 before powering down the stretch to score the one length win in 2:04.4. Best Ball, owned by John Jesson of Tillsonburg, Duane Hicks of Aylmer, trainer Frank O’Reilly of Orton and John Fielding of Toronto, stayed game for second and Call To Order and Earl Vic Dol were one and three-quarter lengths back in third and fourth.
The win was Hieway Earl’s first of the season and boosted him into the Grassroots post season with a total of 100 points from one win and two seconds in three starts. The gelding has just five starts under his belt since making his racing debut on Sept. 2 and boasts an impressive record of one win, three seconds and one third with earnings of $26,586.
The other two winners were also making their first appearance in front of the track photographer after getting a late start to their freshman campaigns. Attitude Abe kicked off the parade of first-time winners in Race 1, posting a narrow victory over Turn That Down. The Incredible Abe son and driver Bruce Richardson landed in fifth spot off the gate and made a move to the outside heading to the halfway marker, where they were forced to stay until they claimed the lead heading by the three-quarter marker.
On top by a length and a quarter at the top of the stretch, Attitude Abe held off the charging Turn That Down to score the neck victory in 2:06 for trainer Frank Szasz and owner-breeder Ena Szasz of Bolton. The win squeaked the colt into the top 16 with a total of 63 points from one win, one fourth and one fifth-place finish in Grassroots action.
Skylars Image scored his first win in the second race with an impressive wire-to-wire effort for driver Dave Wall. The Wesgate Crown son went into Saturday’s event with three starts under his belt, including a second in the Aug. 5 Grassroots at Belleville, and hit the wire one and three-quarter lengths ahead of Certified Election in 2:05.4. Rocky Two, owned by Ronald Topping of London, rounded out the top three.
Peterborough resident John Bax trains Skylars Image for his partners Harry Locke of Oshawa, Aline James of Lindsay and Karen Debnam of Little Britain. The win also bumped Skylars Image into a post season berth with a total of 83 points.
The favourites in all three divisions made breaks in stride that knocked them out of the action in the early going. Yankee Fission finished sixth in the first race, Streak Shower was a distant seventh in the second and C S Ruff Start was the only one to earn a cheque with his fifth-place result in Race 7.
The top 16 point earners from the six regular season events will now prepare for their Grassroots Semifinals at Georgian Downs on Nov. 2. The top four finishers from each $30,000 Semifinal will compete in the Grassroots Championship at Georgian Downs on Nov. 9.
Ontario Sires Stakes action returns to Western Fair Raceway next Friday (Oct. 18) with the final regular season Grassroots event for the exciting three-year-old pacing colts.