SARNIA, ON — Nasty Dream delivered an outstanding effort at Hiawatha Horse Park on Saturday night to claim the fastest of six $16,572 Grassroots divisions for the two-year-old trotting colts.
In spite of being handicapped by the outside Post 9 and a track rated two seconds slower than normal, Nasty Dream roared home to a 2:00 victory, hitting the wire five lengths in front of P C Promising Duke and nine up on Little Paco.
Ronnie MacLean trains and drives Nasty Dream for Glory B Stables Inc. of London. Through five starts the Kaisy Dream son boasts a record of two wins and one second and wrapped up the Grassroots regular season in tenth spot in the division standings with a total of 105 points. The top 16 point earners head to Flamboro Downs on Sept. 30 for two $30,000 Grassroots Semifinals, with the top four finishers from each Semifinal earning a return trip to Flamboro for the $100,000 Grassroots Championship on Oct. 7.
The Mad Duke also secured a berth in the Semifinal with a 2:03 victory in the first Grassroots division. Jason Brewer piloted the Duke Of York son to the two length win over T Js Mr Lavec and fan favourite The Midas Man for owner and trainer Norm Dunstan of Caledon.
Saturday’s win marked The Mad Duke’s first trip to the winner’s circle since the Grassroots season opener at Hanover Raceway on July 5, and boosted him from twentieth to twelfth in the division point race.
Whitesand Diablo made an even more impressive leap up the standings with his 2:02.4 win in the sixth race. The Angus Hall son moved from thirty-first into thirteenth with the two and a half length score over Northern Mistral and Foxworthy.
Susanne Kerwood trains Whitesand Diablo for breeders Whitesand Valley Stables Inc. of Orillia. In his first four Grassroots starts the gelding had posted one second and two thirds for a total of 49 points.
The other Grassroots divisions went to Tymal Cherub in 2:01.3, Keystone Bounty in 2:02.4 and Moblessinsdinblues in 2:02.2.
The top 16 point earners will now head to Flamboro Downs on Saturday, Sept. 30, while the remainder of the field heads for the paddock to grow and mature for their three-year-old Ontario Sires Stakes campaign.
Saturday’s contest also marked the end of Hiawatha Horse Park’s 2006 Ontario Sires Stakes schedule, which saw the three-year-old pacing colts and three-year-old pacing fillies establish new speed records. The provincial program will return to the Sarnia oval in 2007 for another year of outstanding racing from the most talented young trotters and pacers ever bred in Ontario.
For complete results please go to:
http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/results/data/rsarfsa.html