Creatine looks for home field advantage in Sunday’s Bluegrass
September 28, 2013,by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications
Ken Weingartner
Freehold, NJ — Creatine is back at The Red Mile, where he made all seven of his starts last season, and trainer Bob Stewart hopes the 3-year-old colt trotter is ready to continue his winning ways.
A son of former Stewart-trained standout Andover Hall, Creatine has won five of 10 races and $233,527 this year for owners Adam and Chris Bowden’s Diamond Creek Racing. The horse has won four of five starts since having throat surgery in July to correct a breathing problem.
On Sunday afternoon, Creatine will race in the first of three Bluegrass Stakes divisions for 3-year-old male trotters. Creatine, driven by Mike Lachance, is the 2-1 morning line favorite in his split. Your So Vain (7-5) and Master Of Law (5-2) are the morning line choices in the second and third divisions, respectively.
“The horse is doing well,” said Stewart, who is from Lexington. “He got in the habit of being turned out (earlier this year) so we’ve been doing it here and it seems to be agreeing with him. He won’t have raced in 16 days, but we’ve done that before. He needed a break before all the racing he’s got coming up in the next few weeks.”
The Bluegrass will serve as a final prep for the Kentucky Futurity, the third jewel in the Trotting Triple Crown, on Oct. 6 at The Red Mile. Of the 22 horses racing in the Bluegrass divisions, 17 are eligible to the Futurity.
If all goes well, Stewart will send Creatine to the Futurity and then the Breeders Crown at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs. Eliminations for the Breeders Crown are Oct. 12 and the finals are Oct. 19.
“I’m looking forward to racing him here; it’s my home track,” Stewart said.
Last year, Creatine won three of seven races, including a $101,000 Bluegrass Stakes division for 2-year-old male trotters.
“We decided to stop with him and not go to the Breeders Crown or any of the other year-end races, because we thought he had raced enough as a 2-year-old,” Stewart said. “We were concentrating on this year and he came back to our expectations.”
Creatine had a win and two second-place finishes in five starts prior to his throat surgery. His only loss since then came in the $1 million Hambletonian on Aug. 3 at the Meadowlands. Creatine won his elimination race earlier in the day, but in the final got stuck outside the entire mile and finished eighth.
“He’s a very good horse,” Stewart said. “I don’t know if he’s the best, but I guess in the next three weeks we’re going to find out.”
Sunday’s card, which begins at 1 p.m., also includes two Bluegrass divisions for 3-year-old filly trotters and eliminations for the Allerage Farms Open Trot and Allerage Farms Open Pace.
Ma Chere Hall is the 2-1 morning line favorite in the first Bluegrass division for the fillies while world-record-setting Frau Blucher is the 2-1 choice in the second. Market Share is the 5-2 favorite in the Allerage Trot elimination and A Rocknroll Dance is the 5-2 favorite in the Allerage Pace elim.