by Karen Briggs, WEG Media

Fergus, ON — With a wide-open field of 40 candidates going into the eliminations for the June 27 Pepsi North America Cup, every trainer with a colt entered has reason for optimism and that includes local trainer Mark Austin, whose single entry in the scrimmage is a colt named Manhattan Bluechip.

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Manhattan Bluechip has won two times in seven lifetime starts, with earnings of $35,620.

A $165,000 yearling purchase at the 2007 Lexington Selected Sale, Manhattan Bluechip is a son of Art Major, out of the Jenna’s Beach Boy mare, Misty Flirts. He is owned by Leo Thibodeau of Windsor, Ontario, and has been trained by Austin from the beginning, though he made only three starts as a 2-year-old, chalking up a win and a second, and relatively modest earnings of $12,702, on the WEG circuit.

As a sophomore, Manhattan Bluechip has been making his presence felt, however, leading off with a wire-to-wire win in a May 25 conditioned event where he set a new lifetime mark of 1:52.2. In last week’s Burlington Stakes, he was a well-placed third to Carnivore, giving Austin reason to believe his colt belonged with those vying for the big bankroll a week from Saturday.

“He raced awfully well last week,” he said. “He’s just a couple of starts short of where we need to be, to go with these colts. He had some issues this spring — he had some chips taken out of his ankles, which backed up his schedule a bit. Then he broke stride in his second qualifier early in May, which set us back another week.

“He’s a pretty nice colt. He just needs some racing.”

In an ideal world, those couple of starts would be this Saturday’s NA Cup elims, and next week’s NA Cup final but Austin isn’t necessarily expecting the universe to be quite that benevolent.

“It’d be nice though! He drew the eight hole, which isn’t necessarily the greatest, but it looks like there’s lots of early speed in his elim (which also includes Tracy Brainard trainees Schoolkids and If I Can Dream; Blair Burgess pupil, Passmaster Hanover; Upper Canada Cup winner, Stonebridge Terror; and Brenda Teague’s Barber Pole) and he races better off cover, so maybe we can pick up the pieces.”

Of the two-score of colts all looking for a spot in the final, Austin gives the most respect to the undefeated Maritime entry Keep It Real.

“He went an awfully good trip last week to beat those horses, but he’s drawn the 10 hole on Saturday, so he’s going to need a lot of racing luck.

“Passmaster Hanover has been impressive, too, and Ben Wallace’s horse, Arctic Warrior, came a big back half last week in the Burlington as well. He could be a sleeper on Saturday. But he likely won’t be the only sleeper.

“One thing about Manhattan Bluechip, he’s a really laid-back colt. He sleeps all day long if you let him. The retention barn won’t bother him a bit. I expect him to sleep there just like he does at home.”

Manhattan Bluechip is scheduled to go postward in the third of four North America Cup eliminations on Saturday night (race eight, post time 9:57 p.m.), with Randy Waples in the bike.