GLOUCESTER, ON — After a month-long break, Ontario Sires Stakes action returns to Rideau Carleton Raceway on Friday with two Gold Series Eliminations for the exciting two-year-old trotting colts.
Stacked into the first $48,385 division are both Gold Final winners, another pair of colts who have captured Gold Eliminations and one Grassroots winner, while in the second split only two colts have recorded victories at this stage in their young careers.
“All the good ones are in one division,” says trainer Bill Budd. “You don’t see that very often.”
Budd trains former Gold Elimination winner Victory Hall, who came down with a minor virus after failing to deliver as the favourite in the Aug. 11 Gold Final at Windsor Raceway.
“It was an awful time to come up with one sick,” says Budd. “But we’ve nursed him along and hopefully got him good for this week. I trained him this morning (Tuesday) and he seems fine, so with a little luck…”
The Angus Hall son captured his Aug. 4 elimination in Windsor in impressive fashion, reaching the wire six lengths ahead of eventual Gold Final winner Mill Work in 1:59.1. The race was the colt’s first start, but not the first time he had created a buzz on the provincial racing scene.
Cliff Siegel of Staten Island, NY acquired the talented youngster at last fall’s Canadian Classic Yearling Sale for $82,000 and Budd says Victory Hall trained all winter with the style of a future champion.
“He absolutely trained down perfect. He never did a thing wrong, he was really good,” says the horseman, who trained standout pacing colts Sir Luck ($1,255,804) and Boulder Creek ($1,375,860) through their OSS careers. “We trained him down with the pacers and he beat the pacers. I kept telling Cliff, �He’s a good one, probably this is going to be the best horse you ever owned.'”
Making his qualifying debut at Mohawk Racetrack on June 19 the colt delivered as expected, trotting to a 2:06.2 victory, but in two subsequent qualifiers he made breaks and a break at the start of a July 6 qualifier caused driver Mike Saftic to pull the colt up and take him back to the paddock without finishing the mile. Budd made one more attempt to qualify Victory Hall with out a break before the first Gold event, but the colt did not cooperate, skipping off stride at Flamboro Downs on July 7.
While his peers made their racing debut at Woodbine Racetrack Victory Hall was at home practising with trotting hopples and when Budd sent him to Mohawk to qualify on July 16 the talented youngster simply ran away from the field. When the dust settled the colt had been clocked in 1:57.3 and finished 32 lengths ahead of the competition.
“He’s got high speed and he couldn’t handle it,” recalls Budd. “We put the trotting hopples on him and he’s fine now. I’m sure next year he won’t need them.”
In spite of the prevalence of front end trips on his card, Budd says the colt can race any way Saftic requires and will be ready to sit behind one of the other top novices if that is how the race unfolds from Post 3 in Friday’s third race at Rideau Carleton.
“He’s not a hot horse, he’s just got high speed,” says the Carlisle resident. “He will race in a hole, no problem. He’s got on the front a couple of times there, but he’s not a runaway.”
Victory Hall and Saftic will be flanked by Gold Final winners Mill Work and Brazen from Posts 2 and 4, Gold Elimination winner Hudd gets Post 7, while Grassroots winner Reception Hall starts from the trailing Post 9.
Rideau Carleton Raceway’s Friday evening program gets under way at 6:30 pm with the trotting colts featured in Races 3 and 6. The top four finishers from each elimination, plus one fifth-place finisher drawn by lot, will return to the nation’s capital on Friday, Aug. 27 for their third $130,000 Gold Final.