REXDALE, ON — Just two weeks after their provincial debut, Ontario’s talented two-year-old pacing colts swing back into action at Woodbine Racetrack on Thursday evening for their second Gold Elimination.
Several new faces will join the colts that made the trip to Rideau Carleton Raceway for the season opener, while others have opted to skip round two due to sickness or in favour of a shot at the Grassroots level.
Carlisle resident Bill Budd, whose protege Groovie Day captured the July 3 Gold Final with a 1:56.4 come-from-behind effort, is in both camps. Duke Of Luck, who captured his Elimination in Ottawa and finished second in the Final, will miss this week due to sickness, while first time starters Seawind Fame and Dangerous Fame will fill the space in the trailer.
“Duke Of Luck is a little sick so we’ll skip this one. It’s a long, long summer, believe me, I’ve been through it,” says Budd, who conditioned last season’s top Ontario Sires Stakes money earners Boulder Creek and Sir Luck.
The Carlisle resident will send out a total of four colts on Thursday evening — Gerry’s Rocket from Post 3 in the fourth race, Seawind Fame from Post 5 and Groovie Day from Post 8 in the sixth, and Dangerous Fame from Post 2 in Race 8.
Among the colts hoping to prevent another Budd sweep of the top two spots in Race 6 is Cara’s Allamerican, an elimination winner from Ottawa who made an untimely break in the Final and finished seventh.
Tom Artandi trains the son of Grinfromeartoear and the veteran conditioner is confident Woodbine fans will not see another break from the young pacer, who prepped for his Ontario Sires Stakes debut with a pair of sizzling qualifiers at the Meadowlands, a 1:59 score on June 11 and a 1:56 victory on June 18.
“In the second leg (Final) he was slipping real bad. They tell me the track was awful deep and he just couldn’t get a hold of it,” says Artandi, who entrusts long time training partner Jean Belliveau with his horses’ care while they are in Ontario. “This horse acted good from the time we broke him. He’s very sensible and did everything right, he’s just a natural.”
Artandi trains Cara’s Allamerican for Karl Ungerman of Toronto and Philip and Dana Steinberg of Weston, FL, who offered up $31,000 US for the colt at last fall’s Harrisburg Yearling Sale.
“I went to the consignment (Allamerican Standardbreds) to have a look and liked what I saw,” recalls Artandi. “I liked Grinfromeartoear and I was hoping that he’d make a sire, and from what I’ve seen so far it appears that he will.”
Cara’s Allamerican and regular reinsman Chris Christoforou will attempt to capture their second elimination victory from Post 1 in the sixth race, and Artandi feels neither the post nor the move to the seven-eighths mile racetrack will have an impact on the colt.
“He was at the Meadowlands here for a month and a half before I shipped him to Mohawk (Racetrack), so he’s seen it all,” says the Florida resident, who spends the summer stake season on the road between Ontario, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. “And I don’t think the size of track will make a difference because he doesn’t wear any equipment and he goes clean.”
Cara’s Allamerican and his peers star in Races 4, 6, and 8 on Woodbine Racetrack’s Thursday evening program, which gets under way at 7:40 pm. The top three finishers from each elimination will return to the Rexdale oval on Thursday, July 17 for the second of five $130,000 Gold Finals on their schedule this season.