GLOUCESTER, ON — Rideau Carleton Raceway wraps up its 2004 Ontario Sires Stakes program with a Gold Series for the two-year-old pacing colts, and 11 talented youngsters will make the trip to Gloucester to compete in a pair of $56,000 eliminations on Friday.
Paul Barkley’s Fastest Rustler is among the pacers squaring off in the first elimination and, while the colt will be closer to home than he has been all season, the Morrisburg resident will not be at Rideau Carleton to see him compete.
“He won’t get to see him because he’s racing a two-year-old trotting colt (St. Lad’s Speedy) that he’s having pretty good luck with in Flamboro on Saturday afternoon,” says trainer Gregg McNair. “He’ll be on his way to Flamboro when the horse is racing.”
Fastest Rustler heads into Friday’s sixth race off a 1:54 victory in a maiden event at Woodbine Racetrack on Oct. 18, and McNair was impressed the with Rustler Hanover son’s first victory of the season.
“He broke his maiden the other night. He raced pretty hard, he had to earn it,” says the Guelph resident. “I hadn’t raced him in anything but Sires Stakes before that.”
While last week marked the gelding’s first visit to the winner’s circle, he has amassed a solid record competing in the Gold Series. Through four regular season events he has two seconds and one third in elimination action and a second in the July 20 Gold Final at Georgian Downs. McNair says the youngster’s only lacklustre effort came in the Aug. 2 Battle Of Waterloo at Grand River Raceway.
“He’s raced pretty good all year. We put him in — and it turned out to be a mistake — but we put him in the Battle Of Waterloo and he made a break in the elimination and then came up flat in the Consolation,” says the trainer. “The Consolation is the only real bad start he threw in all year, I’d say.”
Barkley purchased Fastest Rustler at the SUNY Morrisville Yearling Sale last fall for a mere $4,000 US and through 11 starts the gelding has returned $68,459.
Sylvain Filion will pilot Fastest Rustler from Post 1 in Friday’s sixth race and McNair is optimistic that the gelding can advance to next Thursday’s $100,000 Gold Final.
“There’s only five in it, so that should help him get spotted,” says McNair, “And the top four go on, so I hope he gets through.”
With 92 points accumulated in the race for a Super Final berth, Filion and Fastest Rustler will also be looking for a solid finish to guarantee the gelding’s place in the $300,000 season finale. Among the colts the pair will have their eyes peeled for on Friday are recent 1:52 winner Make My Day from Post 2 and former Gold Elimination winner Pacific Admiral from Post 3.
The second elimination, Race 8 on Rideau Carleton Raceway’s 6:30 pm program, features reigning Gold Final winner Lincoln Parke from Post 6 and former elimination winner Isle Of Patmos from Post 5. The top four colts from each elimination, along with one fifth-place finisher selected by random draw, will advance out of Friday’s elimination round to the $100,000 Gold Final on Thursday, Nov. 4.