INNISFIL, ON — Georgian Downs’ Saturday evening program will be the hottest ticket in town this weekend as the Innisfil oval hosts eight $30,000 Grassroots Semifinals for the top two-year-old trotters and pacers in Ontario.
Hoping to steal the show in the two-year-old pacing colt division is trainer Bob McIntosh, who will send four contestants to the gate in two Semifinals, including three of the top four point earners from the regular season. The Windsor resident will harness division leader Daylon Alert and runner-up Dream Rocket from Posts 4 and 7 in the sixth race and Jimmy Crack Cohen and Tommys Luck from Posts 3 and 4 in Race 10, and all four colts head into the Semifinal round off wins at Georgian Downs in the regular season finale on Oct. 19.
After starting the season in the Gold Series, McIntosh dropped Daylon Alert into the Grassroots in time for the Aug. 17 event at Kawartha Downs and the colt missed the winner’s circle on just one occasion in his four Grassroots starts.
“He has lots of talent, but he needed to mentally mature a little bit,” says McIntosh, who trains the Camluck son for Robert Waxman of Ancaster. “He’s a big strong colt, a big striding horse and he should develop into a nice three-year-old, so next year he might be a Gold horse.”
McIntosh’s number two colt, Dream Rocket, followed a different path to the Semifinal, racing in all six regular season Grassroots events. The Pacific Rocket son scored three wins, one third and one fourth-place finish to wrap up the season just five points behind his stablemate.
“He’s a real sound colt that hasn’t needed an ounce of vet work,” says the Windsor resident, who shares ownership on Dream Rocket with Dwight Stacey of Mitchell and Paul Ysebaert of Mooretown. “He’s a good handy colt, and he’s also a rugged colt that can take some air.”
The second Semifinal features consistent performer Jimmy Crack Cohen and McIntosh says driver Don McElroy is particularly excited about the Pacific Rocket son after his 1:58.1 win at Georgian Downs on Oct. 19.
“He’s another colt, the Grassroots was a great program for him. He’s steadily got better,” says the trainer, who conditions the colt for breeder Chester Waxman of Hamilton. “After his last start Donny was very impressed with him. He likes the colt a lot.”
The final entrant in the pacing colt division from the powerful McIntosh Stable is Tommy’s Luck, who missed two months of action in mid-season and has surprised McIntosh and owner Robert Waxman with the rapid improvement he has made since his return to the races on Sept. 25.
“He was a bit of a project all spring and half of the summer,” says the reigning Johnston Cup winner as the top trainer in the Ontario Sires Stakes program. “He was so big early that it was hard to get his coordination down so I took a break with him, I didn’t stop completely, I just backed off with him. I didn’t know if he’d make it back this fall. He kind of surprised me.”
McIntosh will also harness pacing filly Cam Nice Girl from Post 1 in the second race and the veteran horseman was just happy to see the Camluck filly draw into the race. She finished the season in twentieth spot in the point standings and relied on the absence of four fillies above her to earn a post season berth. Among the fillies Cam Nice Girl will face in Race 2 is division leader Pat Me Up, who will start from Post 6 and heads into the contest on a two-race win streak.
“She won her last two races and wasn’t terribly extended last time,” says Greg Drew of the Gothic Dream filly’s personal best 1:57.3 victory at Kawartha Downs on Oct. 18. “She’s a pretty big mare so she likes the bigger tracks better than the small tracks.”
Drew bred, trains and drives Pat Me Up, and will have an eye peeled for William “Bud” Fritz’s fillies Brokenstar, who starts to their right from Post 7, and Wendys Rocket, who headlines the eighth race from Post 6.
McIntosh’s final entrant is trotting colt Mr Tantalizer, who will start from Post 3 in the ninth race. The Mr Lavec son scored one win in four Grassroots starts, but the trainer says he has yet to develop the killer instinct required to be a Grassroots Champion.
Meanwhile, Cal Patterson is hoping that Certified Election (Post 8) has his killer instinct sharpened for Saturday’s contest. The Wasaga Beach resident and his partners trainer Kent Baker and Wayne Smith of Coldwater acquired Certified Election just three weeks ago and are hoping to hit the jackpot with the Mr Lavec son on their first time out of the starting gate.
“He’s training very well. We’re pretty excited about him,” says Patterson. “He’s well bred, a nice big horse, and a good looking horse, and I think he’s got a great future.”
Division leader Snoops Bytes returns to action in Race 9 after a month-long rest and will start from Post 1 while Zoltar Seelster, who carries a perfect two-for-two record into the Semifinal, headlines the seventh race from Post 8.
The final division queuing up to impress Georgian Downs fans are the trotting fillies in Races 1 and 4 and Barrie resident David McGurran is looking forward to the opportunity to see his filly, Sarahs Crown, race close to home. The Wesgate Crown lass is the first trotter McGurran has owned and he has thoroughly enjoyed her brief freshman campaign, in spite of a stretch mid season where she made breaks in back-to-back Grassroots starts.
“There was a stretch where she made a couple of breaks, but she’s not break prone. I don’t worry about her breaking. In the two-year-old filly division it seems they’re breaking more than they’re staying flat so I think she’s above par in that area,” he says. “Patience I think is the biggest thing and she has a very patient trainer, Willis Jones, who has never pushed her.”
Jones will send the filly after a top four finish from Post 3 in the fourth race with the other trotting filly Semifinal kicking the post season spectacular off in Race 1 at 7:30 pm. Only the top four finishers from each Semifinal will receive an invitation to return to Georgian Downs on Nov. 9 for their respective $100,000 Grasroots Championship.