FRASERVILLE, ON — Ken Sucee decided long before today’s post position draw that he would start two-year-old pacing gelding Jammed Lucky in the Grassroots at Kawartha Downs on Thursday evening.

“We’ll start at the Grassroots and if he moves up to the Gold, fine,” explains the Bowmanville resident. “Kawartha is our home base, he’s schooled over there and raced over there. We decided a long time ago we would start him at Kawartha Downs.”

The freshman pacing colts opened their Gold season at Mohawk Racetrack on Sunday evening, and Sucee feels Jammed Lucky would have been competitive in one of the three eliminations, but pressuring the lanky gelding for early speed has never been part of his game plan.

“Actually we’re really pointing him toward his three-year-old season,” acknowledges Sucee. “You have to take it easy on these big colts.”

So far Sucee has qualified Jammed Lucky twice, a fourth-place mile in 2:02.3 at Mohawk Racetrack on June 23 and a 1:58 victory at Kawartha Downs on June 28, and raced the gelding once, at Kawartha on July 5. In his career debut the son of Grinfromeartoear and Armbro Mermaid finished fourth, pacing his mile in 1:58.4 over a track rated one second slower than normal.

On Thursday, Jammed Lucky and driver Kurt Hughes will make their Ontario Sires Stakes debut from Post 6 in the last $21,528 Grassroots division, but Sucee is unconcerned about the post position.

“He’s good on the gate and he’s got ability either way. He’s shown he can come from off the pace or he can get out of there,” says the trainer. “Or he can come first up, he’s pretty tough.

“The young man that’s been driving him is Harry Poulton’s nephew. He works for me, and he’s a real good little driver,” adds Sucee. “He’s done what we’ve asked and brought the colt along nicely.”

Sucee says Jammed Lucky has been a trainer’s dream since he stepped off the truck from last fall’s Forest City Yearling Sale, where he was a $26,000 purchase. Sucee’s father Ron went to the sale looking for a Grinfromeartoear colt and was pleasantly surprised that Jammed Lucky, who was then called Mermaid Man, fell into his price range.

“Because he is a brother to Funny Bones ($98,602), who won in 1:52.4 early last year, my dad thought he was actually a good buy. He thought he would go for more,” recalls Sucee. “He’s been a problem free colt, he’s done everything we’ve asked of him.”

Funny Bones won the first two-year-old pacing colt Gold Final last year, and while Jammed Lucky bears little resemblance to his much smaller sibling, Sucee would love to see the gelding capture his first Grassroots assignment for owners Trudy Sucee and Earl Joseph of Bowmanville and Bill Hauber of Oshawa.

The group will be at Kawartha Downs at 7 pm on Thursday watching the competition show off in Races 1, 2, 4, and 7 before Jammed Lucky gets his shot at a Grassroots trophy in Race 8.

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