CAMPBELLVILLE, ON — When the two-year-old trotting colts step back onto Mohawk Racetrack this Thursday, Harry Poulton is hoping that Hibbler can become the first colt of the season to repeat as a Gold Final champion.
The first three events saw three different colts take home the Gold Final hardware — Senator Hall on July 22, Sin To Win on Aug. 4 and Hibbler on Aug. 25. Hibbler’s victory came over the Mohawk Racetrack oval, and Poulton is hoping the youngster can recreate history from Post 6 on Thursday.
“We’ll train him up a little bit this week,” notes the Milton resident. “He’s coming into the race tighter and better than last week. He should make a good account of himself if everything goes right.”
In last week’s elimination round Hibbler suffered his first ever loss, a third-place finish behind Aloft and Sin To Win. The start was the Striking Sahbra son’s first since his win the Aug. 31 Champlain Stakes at Mohawk. That victory followed on the heels of a sweep of the Gold Elimination and Final, and a win in Grassroots action at Clinton Raceway on July 27.
Hibbler moved into Poulton’s barn after the Aug. 25 Gold Final win, and the trainer has been impressed with the young trotter from day one.
“He is a nice colt, he’s everything you could ask for in a horse,” says the horseman, who trains Hibbler for Craig Wilson of Burlington and Gordon Rumpel of Calgary, AB. “He looks and acts like a nice horse, and he is a very nice horse.”
Poulton and Rumpel had been shopping for a young horse for several weeks before they got wind that trainer Murray Weber and driver Fred Jamieson of Putnam and Renato Confortin of London were open to offers on Hibbler. One look at the brother to Gold Elimination winning filly Condi Lane, and the longtime partners were smitten.
“He is one of the best looking horses you’ve ever seen, and he has perfect manners,” explains Poulton, who has trained for Rumpel for three decades. “He does everything you want, and when you put him on the track he’s all business.”
It was not until they had concluded the purchase that Poulton learned Rumpel had convinced Craig Wilson to jump back into Standardbred ownership after an eight year hiatus from the game.
“I actually didn’t know anything about it until Gordie called me and told me Craig was going to get in on the horse,” admits Poulton. “Him and I and Gordie had horses together for years in the mid-1980’s to early 1990’s.”
The colt made his first start for the new owners in the Aug. 31 Champlain Stakes and lowered his lifetime mark to 1:56.1. Poulton says the result was simply a result of the colt’s natural talent, not due to anything different in his routine. In fact the trainer admits he grilled Weber and Jamieson about the trotter’s schedule and equipment before leaving their Putnam farm.
“I just did everything exactly like Fred and Murray. I asked them everything you can imagine and did the exact same thing, and it seems to have worked out fine,” says the veteran trainer. “They did a really, really good job with him.”
Rick Zeron drove Hibbler to his Gold Final and Champlain victories, and into third spot in last week’s elimination, and the Oakville resident returns to the race bike on Thursday. The pair will square off from Post 6 against elimination winners Striking Lindsey from Post 2, Winning Mister from Post 7 and Aloft from Post 8. Former Gold Final winners Sin To Win and Senator Hall will start from Post 1 and 10 respectively.
Post time at the Campbellville oval on Thursday evening is 7:30 pm, and the two-year-old trotting colts will roll up behind Mohawk Racetrack’s starting gate in Race 2 for their $20,000 Gold Consolation, and Race 5 for their $120,000 Gold Final.
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