Huntsville favoured over dynamic duo

CAMPBELLVILLE — Brian Brown isn’t the least bit concerned about not having the favourite for the $1million Pepsi North America Cup.

Brown will have two horses — Fear The Dragon and Down by the seaside — in Canada’s richest harness event at Mohawk Racetrack. Although both are coming off impressive wins in their elimination races last weekend, the horse to beat Saturday will be Huntsville, the early 8-5 favourite. Huntsville posted the fastest time in the three elimination races. The son of 2008 Cup winner Somebeachsomewhere earned a 4 ¼-length victory in one minute 49.1 seconds, the third in four starts this season for U.S. racing’s top two-year-old pacing colt last year.

“I thought (Huntsville) should’ve been the favourite as good as he raced the other day,” Brown said Tuesday after the race draw at Mohawk Racetrack. “I’m not a gambler of any type, I couldn’t even tell you what threeto-five pays.

“I’d like to be the favourite in every race I was ever in but in the

end, to me, the odds don’t mean anything. You just go out and race and hope everything works with no one getting into any trouble and everyone has a clean race.”

Fear The Dragon and Downbytheseaside aren’t exactly chopped liver either. Both are undefeated this season, with Fear The Dragon winning all five starts in 2017 while Downbytheseaside has won four straight.

David Miller drove both American-owned and bred horses to their elimination wins, leaving him with a tough decision regarding which one he’d take Saturday night. Brown said Miller will drive Fear The Dragon in the Cup with fellow American Brian Sears replacing Miller with Downbytheseaside. While Brown handles preparations for the horses to race, he’ll leave the driving to Miller and Sears on Saturday night. Miller won last year’s Cup with Betting Line.

Huntsville, trained by Ray Schnittker and driven by Tim Tetrick, will go from post No. 3, flanked by Downbytheseaside (No. 2) and Fear The Dragon (No. 4).

Despite Downbytheseaside’s winning ways, the horse also has his issues. Brown said the richest horse in Saturday’s field ($848,616) sometimes has difficulty running with the lead.

The remainder of the 10-horse field, with post, driver, (and hometown if Canadian), includes: 1) Ocean Colony, Yannick Gingras of Sorel, Que.; 5) Sports Column, Chris Christoforou of Campbellville; 6) Classic Pro, Trevor Henry of Arthur, Ont.; 7) Ozone Blue Chip, Brett Miller; 8) Filibuster Hanover, Matt Kakaley; 9) Western Hill, Doug McNair of Guelph; 10) Miso Fast, Matt Kakaley.