Hayton scores twice
Racing a pair of colts on Saturday and will be back for Goodtimes Invitational on Sept. 2
FRASERVILLE -- John Bax will make two trips to his former home track of Kawartha Downs over the next month.
On Saturday night he’s racing a pair of rookie trotting colts in the two $19,150 Ontario Sires Stakes divisions at Kawartha while on Sept. 2 he’ll be back for the track’s signature race, the Goodtimes Invitational, named in honour of his Hall of Fame trotter.
Bax and his family were mainstays at Kawartha Downs for many years but when the track’s race dates were reduced considerably a few years ago with the cancellation of slots revenue sharing, coupled with the fact that his son Matt was following in his footsteps as a trainer, they relocated to Campbellville, on the former Glengate Farm to be closer to yearround racing.
On Saturday he’ll start Chief Justice in the first OSS event in race two. This will be the colt’s fourth lifetime start, all in OSS Grassroots divisions where he has been consistent with two wins and a third. Steve Byron, who has driven the son of Justice Hall in all of his starts, is scheduled to be in the bike on Saturday as well. In the colt’s last start, on Aug. 3 at Mohawk, he was just a nose shy of the winner.
“Both colts are progressing nicely,” Bax stated. “Chief Justice has some trouble with his eyes in that he sees too much and can be a bit spooky which hopefully he’ll grow out of. He seems to come on late in the mile and shows some ability.
“He’s a good looking colt who has always been good gaited, but when he was training down in Florida he wasn’t in my top tier. The other colt (Delcrest Holiday) was my cheapest yearling by a lot (at $9,000) and he was good from day one. I’m not high on his post though.”
Delcrest Holiday has been saddled with the outside post eight in the second division, race eight, on Saturday night. A son of Holiday Road owned by Bax and his brother Ken of nearby Cavan as well as John Houston of Cobourg and the Gaelic Stable of Sharon, the gelding won his first lifetime start in a Grassroots at Georgian Downs. Through three lifetime starts he has already paid for himself and then some with $11,481 banked to date.
Kawartha will be giving away Ontario Sires Stakes hats and flip flops throughout the evening in addition to the usual second chance draws which occur following the third, sixth and ninth races. Parents are encouraged to bring their youngsters to the Kids’ Activity Centre for games, colouring, snacks and drinks and the chance to win the nightly Kids Club draw where the winner makes a presentation in the winner’s circle following the Kids’ Club race and takes home a free photo.
The Fraserville oval has a new bar, named for Bax’s Goodtimes. There have also been painting and décor changes throughout the grandstand, an upgraded sound system and revised menus. Added this year has been ice cream from Kawartha Dairy.
Post time at Kawartha Downs is 7 p.m. Canada wrapped up preliminaryround play at the under-18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup hockey tournament with a 6-1 win over Slovakia on Wednesday. Peterborough native Barrett Hayton led the way for Canada with two goals and an assist. Canada (2-0-1) will face Sweden (3-0-0) in the semifinals on Friday. Hayton now leads Team Canada in scoring and is in a five-way tie for second place overall in scoring at the tourney. Peterborough Petes import draft pick Gleb Babintsev is playing for Team Russia at the tourney. He has no points and 27 penalty minutes in Russia's first three round-robin games.