REXDALE, ON — Woodbine Racetrack wraps up its summer season of Ontario Sires Stakes action with an impressive line-up of three-year-old pacing colts competing for $130,000 in Monday night’s Gold Final.

Elimination winners Armbro Balmoral and Freedom Hanover lead the talented colts into the rich event from Posts 7 and 10, and trainer Kyle Reibeling looks forward to taking another run at the top dogs with L H Stryker, who finished second to Armbro Balmoral last week.

“We were really happy with the way he raced,” says Reibeling, who shares ownership on the Apaches Fame son with Ladino Fiori of North York. “There is no shame in losing to a horse like Armbro Balmoral. Ben Wallace has him at the top of his game right now.

“Last week we went off at 35 to 1 and I was kind of shocked because he has only thrown in one bad race in his life, but this time he’ll get more respect from the public and on the racetrack.”

L H Stryker’s lacklustre effort came in the eliminations for the Canadian Breeders Championship on July 24 when he trailed in 10 lengths behind the leaders in eighth place. Immediately after the race Reibeling had the colt examined and a laryngoscopy uncovered an infection in the colt’s lungs.

“I thought it was just a viral infection so immediately after the race we started treating it, but after some more extensive testing we found out it was some kind of mould causing allergen that had affected his lungs and his liver,” recalls the Clifford resident. “Once we discovered it was an allergy and treated it appropriately he responded immediately.”

While his blood counts are not quite what they were before the illness, L H Stryker’s elimination effort clearly indicates he is on the road to recovering the form that saw him capture five of his first six starts, including a Gold Series Elimination at Rideau Carleton Raceway on July 8.

“There was a lot of pressure early on to take him to Woodbine to race, but in those races he won at Sarnia and Grand River he was never stretched and confidence wise it makes them think they are a great horse,” says the horseman. “I think that’s important for a young horse.”

Reibeling is also quick to give credit to drivers Mark Etsell and Stephen Byron, who helped teach the colt his early lessons, and to Steve Condren, who will steer him from Post 1 in Monday’s Gold Final.

“To have good accomplished horseman like Mark Etsell and Steve Byron giving him his early lessons, especially with a breed that tends to get hot, really makes my job easier,” he notes. “And Steve Condren has such a light set of hands it seemed his finesse and his style would suit the colt, especially the way I wanted him driven. We were just fortunate he wasn’t committed to another colt.”

The 31-year-old conditioner typically concentrates on trotters and he and Fiori are enjoying every moment of L H Stryker’s Gold Series campaign, ups and downs included.

“I kind of always hoped I would have a horse race at the top level of the Sires Stakes, but I kind of always thought in the back of my mind it would be a trotter,” admits Reibeling. “Ben Wallace came up and congratulated me on how good the colt looked — he has his brother Pronger ($318,856) — and, coming from a horseman of that stature, that meant a lot.”

Monday’s fifth race on Woodbine Racetrack’s 7:40 pm program is just the next step on what Reibeling hopes will be a long and successful career for L H Stryker.

“He’s got all the traits of a horse that should come about and hopefully show the world he is as good as I think he is.”