ELORA, ON — Over the last seven years Grand River Raceway has hosted six Gold Finals for trotters on its popular Industry Day program, and George Zirnis has made five attempts to get into the winner’s circle on his hometown oval’s signature day. The Elmira resident will begin a sixth attempt on Monday, July 31 when he sends Dream On Ernie after a top two finish in the last of five $21,862 Gold Eliminations for the two-year-old trotting colts.

“Keep both toes and everything crossed until the gate leaves,” says Zirnis with a chuckle.

Since 1999 the trotting specialist has started five horses in the eliminations leading up to the Industry Day Gold Final. He has qualified two horses through to the Final and his best result came in 2004 with Dream On Ernie’s full sister, Dream On Bernie, who finished second by a length. Unfortunately, Dream On Ernie did not inherit his sister’s easy temperament and over his first three starts has demonstrated that he is much more like his mother, Dreamfair Tierra, who finished fourth by a length in her elimination at the old Elmira Raceway after leading for the entire mile.

“He’s a lot like his mother and she gave me a lot of sleepless nights,” admits Zirnis, who shares ownership on Dream On Ernie with Tanya Martin of Elmira, Janet Fairall of Windsor and Nancy Holmes of Clinton. “She was so aggressive, bully and wanted to beat everybody. It’s just real funny how similar they are.”

Dream On Ernie started to display some of his mother’s traits earlier this spring when Zirnis started to pick up the tempo on the training track and has continued to be a handful through his early season. The Berndt Hanover colt delivered a solid qualifier at Mohawk Racetrack on June 9, but had a temper tantrum behind the gate in the Gold Series season opener at Kawartha Downs on June 29 that left him well back of the field.

“When I qualified him he was bearing out in the stretch so we put a head pole with a burr on it the night I went to Peterborough,” recalls Zirnis, who trains and drives the fractious gelding. “We went out in the post parade and he was fighting the head pole. He was just so mad by the time he got in behind the gate — and it was going too slow for him — he made a break.”

Rather than race the gelding in a overnight event, Zirnis opted to strip all the equipment off and requalify, and the youngster delivered an impressive 2:02.1 win at Mohawk on July 7. Back in Gold Elimination action at the Mohawk oval on July 13, Dream On Ernie finished second by three-quarters of a length after carving all the fractions in a 2:00.3 mile, however in the July 20 Gold Final he once again threw a fit behind the gate and finished last.

“He came up behind the gate good, but just about the last 50 yards he wanted to just march and the gate wasn’t shooting out of there,” explains the veteran horseman. “He’s a bit of a headache and a bit of a handful, but we’ll just work through it I guess.”

Zirnis has never doubted Dream On Ernie’s talent and hopes the colt’s fuse gets a little shorter as he matures in the same way that his mother’s did seven years ago.

“The more I raced her as a two-year-old and a three-year-old, she got better all the time,” recalls Zirnis. “You wouldn’t believe how similar his mom is to him.

“I knew he could go good, it was just a question of his manners,” Zirnis adds. “He gets mad real easy and he’ll let you know he’s mad.”

Dream On Ernie will start from Post 2 in the eleventh race on Monday and faces a tough task to move Zirnis closer to his �Holy Grail.’ Only the top two colts from each elimination will advance to the Gold Final on Industry Day, which will have 10 starters.

Among the colts Dream On Ernie will have to best to earn a ticket to the Aug. 7 main event are former Gold Elimination winner Blaze Of Sonshine from Post 3 and July 20 consolation winner Catch My Korvette from Post 5.

Post time at Grand River Raceway on Monday evening is 7:30 pm and, in addition to the Gold Eliminations in Races 2, 3, 7, 8, and 11, fans will also be treated to eliminations for the track’s marquee event, the Battle Of Waterloo for Ontario-sired two-year-old pacing colts. The Battle Of Waterloo contenders go postward in Races 5, 6, 9 and 10.

For complete entries please go to:

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