CAMPBELLVILLE, ON — When the two-year-old trotting colts return to Mohawk Racetrack on Thursday, July 20 for their $130,000 Gold Final, trainer Scott McEneny says the Ten To Win Stable is trying not to anticipate another victory from stable star Lemon Drop.

“They’re not expecting to win this race,” says McEneny of the group of nine new owners and mentor Scott Arsenault that comprise the Ten To Win Stable. “They just hope he races good and gets a cheque. They’re having a lot of fun.”

One of two groups of new owners formed under the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association Mentoring Program last fall, the Ten To Win Stable has enjoyed a remarkable run of beginner’s luck. After delivering a solid 2:07.2 performance in a June 30 qualifier at Mohawk, Lemon Drop captured a Grassroots division at Hanover Raceway on July 5 with another 2:07.2 effort.

McEneny considered sending the trotter back to the Grassroots program for his second start, but opted to tackle the Gold Series colts instead and last Thursday at Mohawk Lemon Drop delivered a 1:59.4 victory in his Gold Elimination.

“I thought he’d be a Gold horse maybe later on in the year. I didn’t think he’d be ready this early,” reflects McEneny. “I didn’t know if I’d even go to the second Gold, but I didn’t really want to go to Dresden for the Grassroots so I thought I’d throw him in and see what happened.”

The Waterdown resident says the leggy son of Mr Lavec and Lemons Mill was a slow bloomer and lagged behind his peers all winter.

“He was very good to break, very lazy and very easy on himself,” recalls the trainer, who helped select the full brother to $299,232 winner Mill Work from last fall’s Forest City Yearling Sale. “He trotted all the time, but he wasn’t very aggressive. He was kind of behind the other colts.”

In addition to educating Lemon Drop McEneny also assisted Arsenault, also of Waterdown, in the ongoing education of his enthusiastic group of owners, who each contributed $4,500 toward the gelding’s $30,000 purchase price and his freshman year training expenses. The group met monthly at the McEneny training facility to see their prospect in action and received regular updates on his progress.

“They’ve been great. They’ve all pretty well come out every time and they’ve all become good friends too,” says the horseman. “They were all people that had watched the races, or bet on the races, or gone to the races, and this was an opportunity to get in on one for not too much money and see what happened.”

As the start of the two-year-old season approached and Lemon Drop continued to progress, excitement began to build around when and where he might make his first start, but McEneny says they never really expected to have a Gold Series horse.

“They weren’t expecting a Gold horse, they were just hoping he would race, so now it’s a lot of fun for them,” he says. “I don’t think he’s discouraged anybody yet, anyway.”

Lemon Drop will make his bid for a third straight win from Post 4 in Thursday’s fifth race with Mark MacDonald back in the race bike. The other elimination winners, Good Knight, Charlie Lavec and reigning Gold Final champion Smarty Jims, will start from Post 5, Post 8 and Post 9 in the $130,000 Final.

Post time at Mohawk Racetrack on Thursday evening is 7:20 pm.

For complete entries please go to:

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/emohsth.html#N5

For more information about the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association 2006 Mentoring Program please go to www.sboa.info/mentoring.html