CLINTON, ON — Clinton Raceway plays host to the cream of the three-year-old trotting colt crop on Sunday afternoon as 58 talented youngsters vie for a total of $120,000 in eight Grassroots divisions.
Hoping to pad his bankroll and his Grassroots point total is one of last year’s top competitors, Shady Suspect, who kicked off his sophomore campaign with a 2:04.2 victory in the May 24 season opener at Dresden Raceway.
“He got a good drive at Dresden and managed to pick his way through the pack (from Post 8),” says the colt’s trainer Peter Clements. “We’re on the gate this time, so we’ll see how that goes.”
Regular reinsman Ross Battin will steer the Incredible Abe son from Post 5 in the eleventh race on Sunday and will be looking for another solid finish from the leggy gelding, who has come right back to the consistent form that earned him $43,338 in the Ontario Sires Stakes program last year.
“He’s matured a bit and is trotting good,” says Clements. “He didn’t grow much, but he thickened out a wee bit and got stronger looking.”
Clements trains Shady Suspect for his children Curtis and Amy of Dobbinton and Chad of Chesley, who were given the trotter by their grandmother Glenna Clements, who also resides in Dobbinton.
“We trained his mother, but she had a problem they couldn’t operate on,” recalls Clements. “So the people who owned her asked me what they should do with her and I said if she was my mare I’d breed her because she wanted to race, she had the desire.
“They said they were breeding as many as they could handle at the time and asked if we would be interested in leasing her. My mother said she didn’t have anything so she’d lease her for a year, then she gave the colt to the three of them.”
Curtis is the most hands-on of the trio, but Clements expects the whole family will get out to see the gelding race in Clinton on Sunday. Among the horses hoping to challenge Shady Suspect for top spot in the eleventh race is King Anthony, one of two horses trained by Clinton’s George McClure. King Anthony will start from Post 1 in Race 11 while McClure’s other entry, Crown Meadow, gets Post 1 in Race 10.
Clinton Raceway spotlights the three-year-old trotting colts in Races 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 and 11 on Sunday, with the first $15,000 division rolling in behind the starting gate at 1:30 pm.