FRASERVILLE, ON — Hot summer temperatures always signal one thing in Ontario harness racing, the much anticipated debut of the two-year-old future stars. This year Kawartha Downs hosts the first freshman event of the season, with 43 two-year-old pacing colts eager to wage their first Sires Stakes battle in five Gold Series Eliminations on Tuesday afternoon.

“You just don’t know where they fit so everybody aims for the top,” says trainer Mark Horner regarding the impressive number of colts heading to Fraserville Tuesday. “There’s not much room for error.”

Only the top two colts from each elimination will earn a berth in the July 5 Gold Final, but Horner is hopeful that Northern Cowboy will be one of them.

Bred and owned by Wilma and James Mackenzie of Peterborough, Northern Cowboy heads into the sixth race off a third and a win in qualifying action at Mohawk Racetrack. In his June 18 victory the Rustler Hanover son powered to the front from Post 8 and controlled the fractions throughout the mile, pacing home one length the best in 1:58.1.

“He’s got a good attitude and he likes to do it,” says Horner of the lanky youngster. “He’s a Rustler (Hanover) and I think most of them can leave pretty good, but his depth is what is best about him. By that I mean he is pretty strong overall and he’s big enough that he can handle speed.”

Horner started training the gelding last fall for the Mackenzie’s and says Northern Cowboy did not make a very good first impression.

“When he came to us he was so tall and lanky he didn’t look very athletic,” says the St. Mary’s resident, who will also harness Button Up from Post 4 in the ninth race. “But he’s really grown up and matured and thickened out nice.”

Horner’s brother Michael will steer the colt from Post 3 in the sixth race and among the colts he will face is King Joe, another locally bred and owned youngster who is as compact as Northern Cowboy is lanky.

The second foal of David Snowden’s remarkable race mare Queens Arms, a $719,434 winner though her career, King Joe will start from Post 5 in what Snowden regards as a testing ground for the diminutive pacer.

“He’s a solid colt, he’s just not big,” say Snowden. “I guess we’ll see how big he is on Tuesday.

“We didn’t know whether to go in the Gold or the Grassroots, but he is bred like a Gold horse so we’ll try him in there for now.”

The Camluck son boasts a third-place finish in a June 11 qualifier at Hanover Raceway and a runner-up effort in a June 21 practice run over Mohawk Racetrack. Trained by Mark Etsell, the colt will be driven in his Sires Stakes debut by Bowmanville resident Doug Brown.

“He’ll have a good challenge to make the Final. He has a middle post and he doesn’t like to leave much,” notes Snowden, who also hails from Bowmanville. “To be at the back of the pack and make the top two, you’re at the mercy of the race.”

The freshman colts square off in Races 3, 4, 6, 7, and 9 on Kawartha Downs’ Tuesday afternoon program, which gets under way at 4 pm. The top two finishers from each elimination will return to the Fraserville oval on July 5 for the first of five $130,000 Gold Finals on their schedule this summer.

For a complete list of Tuesday’s entries please go to:

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/ekdftu.html.