CAMPBELLVILLE, ON — Ontario Sires Stakes excitement returns to Mohawk Racetrack on Monday evening with four outstanding Gold Eliminations for the two-year-old pacing colts.
The top colts will all be on hand to defend their positions in the race toward the season ending Super Final, but there are also a host of new faces leaping into the fray in hopes of capturing a piece of the provincial pie through the last two Gold Series events. Among the youngsters hoping to make their presence felt on Monday is Grin Some More, owned by local trainer Mike Wells of Campbellville and his partners Louie Camara and Dawn Crossby’s Four Bucks N A Doe Farms of Puslinch.
“I think he’s going to develop into a decent horse. He’s got all the parts,” says Wells. “I babied him all winter, I never trained him hard, and I’ve just been starting to get a little harder on him in the last 30 days trying to sharpen him up for the late stakes.”
Grin Some More made his debut in a non-winners of one race event at Woodbine Racetrack on July 29, finished fourth in his first stab at a Gold Elimination at Flamboro Downs on Aug. 10 and has logged a trio of third-place finishes in non-winners of one action since then. The Grinfromeartoear son will make his second Gold Series start from Post 9 in the fourth race on Monday and Wells hopes the young pacer can overcome the outside post to score a top two finish and advance to the Sept. 29 Gold Final.
“We’re looking forward to this week. It’s too bad we got the nine-hole, but I think we’re in what looks like one of the easier divisions,” notes Wells. “I haven’t called my partner yet and I’m going to tell him there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is we got the nine-hole and the good news is we’re in with a softer bunch.”
Wells is the first to admit that Grin Some More has some work to do before he can compete with the likes of division leader Sauble Jackson, who will start from Post 5 in the eighth race, or the red hot Grin Tin Tin, who landed Post 6 in Race 2.
“He’s got to get a little better, or they’ve got to get a little worse. And I don’t think they’re going to get any worse,” he says with a chuckle. “But he’s a decent horse and I’m looking forward to getting him through the next two month and then having a nice three-year-old.”
The veteran horseman, who took a ten-year sabbatical from the harness racing industry to establish a career in real estate, adds one thing that may be holding Grin Some More back is his under-developed killer instinct.
“I don’t think he’s got the best attitude of them all,” says Wells. “The most aggressive he gets is when he eats.”
A $130,000 acquisition at last fall’s Tattersalls Yearling Sale, the half-brother to $997,902 winner French Panicure, has a long way to go before he repays his purchase price and Wells, Camara and Crossby would love it if the colt got started on Monday.
“It’s the first time Louie’s ever owned Standardbreds and I’m trying to teach him that patience is a virtue,” says Wells with a laugh. “He’s doing okay.”
Mohawk Racetrack’s Monday evening program gets under way at 7:40 pm and the two-year-old pacing colts heat things up in Races 2, 4, 6, and 8. The top two finishers from each elimination, plus two third-place finishers drawn by lot, will return to the Campbellville oval on Monday, Sept. 29 for their fourth $130,000 Gold Final.