Freshmen colts front and centre
A very unique flashback to 1983
The two-year-old pacing colts roll into Summerside on Thursday to contest the Atlantic Sire Stakes.
There will be three $9,320 A events, and three divisions of the B Stakes racing for a mere $2,500.
Kenny Arsenault continues his quest to join the 3,000-win club, and has the morning-line favourite in the open A split. Artys Wish has one overnight race under his young belt, and finished second on an off track. He left hard and finished strong – that’s enough to like him. You don’t have to go back that far to remember Bunny Mach racing, and winning the open mares. Now she is leaving her mark on the broodmare side, producing Buddy Mach.
This colt is the second choice in the program, and does have one race on his resumé – finishing third over a track rated with a two-second variant. The “Power House” Downey Stables has a colt in this race listed as the third choice. Tobins Optimism got ruffed up in his first lifetime start in Charlottetown. Trainer Steve Mason drove, and he would be the first to tell you the drive wasn’t pretty. This colt has the rail, and Gilles Barrieau in the sulky.
Second division
In the second division of the A colts, Barrieau looks like he has a monster on his hands by the name of Tangled Mind. He is the son of Pang Shui that qualified in 1:58.1, with a sizzling final half mile in 57.4. Can’t wait!
There’s another Pang Shui colt in here out of the Kevin MacLean barn that has a qualifying trip in two minutes and change. He goes by the handle of Sock It Away. Marc Campbell gets the driving assignment, and could make things interesting.
The final A test has Weekend At Nannies favoured. He’s a big Western Paradise colt that was eased off the gate last week in Charlottetown. Then trainer/ driver Mike McGuigan rightlined him, and in the blink of an eye he was off to the races. He cleared the lead just by the opening half mile, and won by over seven lengths in 2:00.4 on a good track with a twosecond variant.
Flashback
It was 1983, and I was starting my first season at Sunparlour Raceway in Leamington, Ont.
The track had flat tight turns, and the races had to start just into the stretch. To signal that start there was always a person in the centre field with his or her arm up, and then would lower it when the horses arrived at the starting point. This would let the timer know when to fire up the stop watch, which was just one of the quirky things that I have experienced over a 40-year career.
I can tell you Leamington gave me the opportunity to make some wonderful lifetime friends, one of which was Randy Kerr.
He gave me the opportunity to ride along to places like Maywood Park in Chicago, Raceway Park in Toledo and Hazel Park in Detroit. Randy was one of the nicest guys you could have ever called your friend, and was taken from us way to soon by the horrible disease cancer.