by Sandra Snyder, for the Ontario Sires Stakes

Rexdale, ON — Deuce Seelster and Laddie are among the top Ontario-sired money earners from the 2007 season, and heading into Saturday’s C$2.4 million Super Final championships at Woodbine Racetrack, both colts look like they are still racing at the top of their game.

“This week he trained the best he’s trained all year,” says Darren McCall, who handles conditioning duties on 2-year-old pacing colt Deuce Seelster. “He’s probably not the greatest trainer, but this week he felt like a good horse right from the moment I turned him.”

Deuce Seelster heads into Saturday’s sixth race off a 1:53.2 romp over Windsor Raceway in the Oct. 31 Gold final, the Western Maverick son’s eighth win in 11 starts. He also boasts a pair of runner-up placings and a fourth in the Metro final for earnings of C$486,578.

The Windsor victory came in spite of a virus that flared up after Deuce Seelster was nosed out by Lennon Blue Chip in the Oct. 15 Gold final at Woodbine Racetrack, an effort that McCall says demonstrates just how tough the juvenile pacer really is.

“He can deal with a lot of things, this horse,” explains the Cambridge resident, who trains Deuce Seelster for Katherine Bardis of Sacramento, Calif. “A lot of horses feel a little pain or get a little sickness and they just curl up, with him, he can just deal with it and go on.”

Deuce Seelster and regular reinsman Paul MacDonell will start from post three on Saturday, and McCall is very happy to have the Guelph resident in the race bike for the C$300,000 Ontario Sires Stakes season finale.

“Paul knows him really well, and he seems to respond to Paul,” says McCall. “It’s an advantage to have him driving.”

The other advantage McCall feels Deuce Seelster has over some of his peers is a laissez faire approach to the retention barn. Every horse entered in the eight Super Finals will spend 24 hours in retention at either Woodbine or Mohawk Racetrack, and McCall says Deuce Seelster has always taken the change in his daily routine in stride.

“He’s been in there plenty of times and he pretty much just eats and sleeps,” explains the horseman. “While the other ones are bouncing off the walls, he doesn’t really care.”

Paula Wellwood says Laddie shares Deuce Seelster’s laid back disposition when it comes to a change in routine, in fact the Cambridge resident says the 3-year-old trotting colt seems to relish any trip away from home.

“He loves to go places. If you pull a trailer up, he knows, and he just gets so excited,” says Wellwood, with an affectionate chuckle. “Nothing fazes him, nothing, which is a good thing. He doesn’t fret about things, he’s just happy.”

Laddie’s enthusiasm for travel and adventure are part and parcel of a disposition that Wellwood has always compared to that of a child with Attention Deficit Disorder, and the trainer dedicates a lot of her energy toward providing the colt with enough stimulation so that his restless energy does not land him in too much hot water.

“You’ve always got to keep him stimulated, keep him thinking, always keep him thinking,” she explains. “You’ve always got to find things that interest him. He gets bored very easy.

“Some days he can be just like a bratty kid that you want to give a time out — or throttle,” she adds. “But he’s smart, in that he knows just how far he can push me. He’ll look at me and I’ll say one more thing and he straightens himself up.”

Paul MacDonell will also pilot Laddie on Saturday, steering the winner of C$522,971 from post six in the ninth race. The pair head into the C$300,000 contest off nose victories in the elimination and final of the last Gold Series event, clocking an Ontario Sires Stakes record 1:54 in the Oct. 26 final. Through 14 starts the colt has posted five wins and four thirds, with two of those thirds coming in the $1.5 million Hambletonian and the C$1 million Canadian Trotting Classic.

Wellwood says it takes a fair amount of effort to keep Laddie in peak condition, but she adds that he seems to be on his toes heading for Saturday’s Super Final and the Nov. 17 Breeders Crown eliminations.

“He’s very sharp right now. He seems to be on top of his game,” says the trainer, who shares ownership on the colt with her mother Jean Wellwood through their Wellwood Stables Inc. “Hopefully he’ll perform well. There are lots of tough horses in there.”

Post time at Woodbine Racetrack on Saturday is 7:40 p.m., and the eight C$300,000 Super Finals are programmed as races three through 10. Deuce Seelster and his 2-year-old pacing colt peers will battle in race six, while Laddie and the tough 3-year-old trotting colt field will line up behind the starting gate in race nine.