WINDSOR, ON — After a five month absence from the Gold Series scene, Tyrone Spitn Image will take another stab at the upper echelon of the Ontario Sires Stakes program when it swings into Windsor Raceway on Sunday evening.

Tyrone Spitn Image finished third in an elimination of the Gold Series season opener at Western Fair Raceway in May, but a disappointing break and ninth-place finish in the Final caused trainer Bob McIntosh to drop the three-year-old trotter down to the Grassroots level. With two wins and one second in his first three Grassroots starts, Tyrone Spitn Image locked up a berth in the Grassroots post season so McIntosh opted to skip the last event to maintain the gelding’s eligibility for the final Gold Series competition.

“We knew he was in the Grassroots Semifinal at the time, and he was racing really good, so we decided to give him a try in the one last Gold,” recalls McIntosh. “I’m hoping if he’s on his game he could make it to the Final.”

Tyrone Spitn Image heads into Sunday’s contest off a disappointing fifth-place finish in the Oct. 7 Grassroots Semifinal. The winner of $74,375 made a break turning for home and failed to advance to the Championship. McIntosh says shoeing, track conditions and an outside post are all factors that played into the trotter’s unsuccessful bid for Grassroots glory.

“I don’t think he was getting a hold of the racetrack the way he was shod,” says the LaSalle resident. “It was slippery enough that he couldn’t grip the track way out there.”

After evaluating the gelding’s performance, McIntosh decided a shoeing change was not in order, so Tyrone Spitn Image will sport his usual �flip flops’ at Windsor on Sunday. The trotter will make a second bid for a top four finish from Post 3 in the seventh race and legendary driver John Campbell will sub for regular pilot Jack Moiseyev.

“I knew he was going to be in town to drive Northern Ensign,” says McIntosh of his decision to put Campbell on the gelding. “Jack is in Flamboro driving Platinum Seelster, and John is never a bad substitute.”

Although the trotter has not seen action for two weeks, McIntosh says he should be sharp for Sunday’s elimination test.

“He trained up good the other day,” says the Hall of Fame horseman, who shares ownership on Tyrone Spitn Image with breeder Dave Boyle of Bowmanville. “He won’t have that as an excuse.”

Among the colts that Tyrone Spitn Image and Campbell will face in the second $53,461 elimination are Simcoe Stakes winner Stormont Welldone from Post 2 and former Gold Elimination winners Last Flight Out and Brazen from Posts 7 and 9.

Post time for Windsor Raceway’s Sunday evening program is 7 pm, with the talented three-year-old trotting colts and geldings set to take the stage in Races 4 and 7. The top four finishers from each elimination, plus one fifth-place finish drawn by lot, will return to Windsor for their last $130,000 Gold Final on Sunday, Oct. 30.

For a complete list of entries please go to:

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