HANOVER, ON — At Hanover Raceway this Saturday the Canada Day fireworks will take place on the track as the province’s talented three-year-old pacing colts square off in nine Grassroots divisions worth a total of $135,000.

Hoping to keep a share of the provincial purse money in the neighbourhood is Wingham resident Dennis Jewitt, who will harness R M Karisma from Post 6 in the fifth Grassroots division.

I think he’ll race good,” says Jewitt. “He’ll make an account of himself. They’ll know he’s there.”

R M Karisma heads into Saturday’s contest off a runner-up finish in a maiden event at Woodstock Raceway on June 24 and a third-place finish in the June 10 Grassroots event, also held at Woodstock. Jewitt is optimistic about the Intrepid Seelster son’s chances of accumulating a few additional Grassroots points after a recent visit from the equine dentist turned up a few rough edges.

“He wasn’t steering quite right,” explains Jewitt, who owns and trains R M Karisma. “So I had his teeth done and I am pretty sure that what we found is going to help him. I’m not looking for miracles, but I’m hoping that it’s going to make a difference in the way he races.”

R M Karisma is the third foal of dam Cherubine that Jewitt has purchased from breeder Ron Parker of Teeswater. The first was Jiffies Star, who went on to make $126,492 in the claiming ranks after getting his start in Jewitt’s care.

“Ron Parker is the greatest person in the world. He is a very studious person on breeding,” says Jewitt, who made his first foray to Parker’s farm to see Jiffies Star and has gone back every year since.

“I bought this colt through my association with Ron, and he is a little different horse. He’s precocious, but I castrated him and now he’s not so precocious,” he adds with a wry chuckle.

In R M Karisma’s 2006 Grassroots debut the colt finished well back of the field, and Jewitt says the lacklustre effort can be directly attributed to the gelding’s attitude that evening.

“The night that colt raced in Windsor he was a little bit rank and things just didn’t work out,” says the longtime horseman, who recently retired from a 37 year career at the Goderich salt mines. “He finished third in Woodstock, Allan Cullen drove him, and Al was the key that day.”

Trevor Henry will pilot R M Karisma in his third provincial outing on Saturday and the pair will face a field of eight Grassroots regulars including Bend It, who currently sits fifth in the division point race with one win and one second in the first two Grassroots events and will start from the trailing Post 8.

Post time for Hanover Raceway’s Canada Day program is 7:25 pm and the three-year-old pacing colts will light things up in Races 1 through 8 and Race 10.

For complete entries please go to:

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