by Sandra Snyder

Campbellville, ON — Surprises have been the norm thus far in the 2-year-old trotting colt Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Series division and trainer Rob Mackenzie, Jr. is simply hoping elimination winner Filthy Paddy ends up on the plus side of any unexpected events in Monday’s (July 23) C$130,000 Gold final at Mohawk Racetrack.

“You just hope for the best,” says the Rockwood resident pragmatically. “There’s always been surprises so we may be in the surprise category, even though we won our elimination. There were some other horses that raced very well.”

Filthy Paddy and driver Jody Jamieson employed a come-from-behind strategy to secure the win in last week’s Gold elimination. The pair circled out three-wide at the three-quarters to reach the front and then held on for a three-quarter length victory in 2:00.

“I think our division was the slowest of the three, but he looked like he had a little bit left in his tank when he was finishing, like he was still going along,” says Mackenzie. “Jody said he was steering a little in and out, but he said everything else was all right, so we’ve been trying to work on that a little bit and hopefully it works out.”

Mackenzie says the steering issue is simply the result of inexperience and expects Filthy Paddy to improve over the course of the freshman campaign. The son of Striking Sahbra and Ai Suma is a second generation product of Mackenzie and Kathleen Donnelly’s breeding program and the partners are hoping he might be the home run hitter they have been waiting for.

“We’ve been breeding in this family for almost 20 years, and there’s been some other ones in this family like Sister Zina ($268,355), Beautiful Day ($23,475), Pajama Land ($157,786). They’ve been coming close but they haven’t hit,” explains the horseman. “The mother of this horse was a pretty good Wesgate Crown mare but she was injured. She was a very fast mare, so she’s had a few foals. We had a Kadabra off of her, Beginish ($46,707), and she wasn’t a bad sort, so we’re hoping for good things from him.”

Last week’s Gold elimination was Filthy Paddy’s second lifetime start. The colt opened his Ontario Sires Stakes campaign at the Grassroots level, finishing fifth in the July 8 season opener at Clinton Raceway after making an early miscue. Mackenzie says there was no clear reason for the colt’s error, adding that distractions and inexperience were probably the major factors.

Filthy Paddy was solid in his elimination and Jamieson will be looking to execute another flawless tour of the Campbellville oval from post seven in the fifth race. The pair also started from post seven in the elimination and Mackenzie would not be surprised if Jamieson opted for a similar race strategy this Monday.

“We’re lucky to have him driving the horse,” says Mackenzie of Jamieson.

“I just hope that we get some racing luck,” he adds. “In this program all the horses are on, you never know what’s going to happen, the pedigrees are all good. The other night there he could settle him for a little while because there were a couple of breakers, so it just depends how the race goes.”

Carving out a trip behind one of the other elimination winners might be a possibility for Filthy Paddy and Jamieson as Kinetic King gets post one and Murmur Hanover gets post two. Only Ark Went In starts to their right, at post nine.

With reigning Gold final champion Musclescorleone and all the other starters from the season opening Gold final watching from the sidelines, Monday’s race is a wide-open affair. This week’s 10 hopefuls will battle for the second Gold final title of the 2-year-old trotting colt season in race five.

Mohawk Racetrack’s first race of the Monday (July 23) program rolls in behind the starting gate at 7:10 p.m.

To view Filthy Paddy’s previous Ontario Sires Stakes starts please go to this link.