by Sandra Snyder

Rexdale, ON — Woodbine Racetrack has three outstanding Ontario Sires Stakes races lined up for fans this Saturday, October 29, with two C$55,013 Gold eliminations for the two-year-old pacing colts and the last C$130,000 Gold Final for their three-year-old peers.

Freshman pacing colt Doonbeg dazzled Mohawk Racetrack fans in August with three straight victories, but made two breaks in his first appearance in the Ontario Sires Stakes program and finished seventh. Since then the Camluck son has been battling a virus, but trainer James Dean hopes things are looking up for the pacer’s second stab at the province’s top colts.

“I trained him up last Wednesday and pulled a blood on him and when I got the blood back on Friday his white count was high. I had already entered him for Monday (October 24), so I did another blood Monday. His white count was lower, but we decided to scratch him so we didn’t jeopardize racing Saturday,” explains Dean. “I’ll pull another blood tomorrow and another one Friday, just to make sure we are going in the right direction. He’s been fighting it for about three weeks now.”

Doonbeg made his racing debut on August 1 at Mohawk Racetrack and raised more than a few eyebrows trackside when he closed from last at the three-quarters to finish second. The precocious pacer captured his next three races at the Campbellville oval in progressively faster times, posting his personal best of 1:52.1 on August 29. Sent off as the favorite in his Gold Series debut at Windsor Raceway on September 24, Doonbeg made a break behind the gate and a second miscue at the top of the stretch which left him at the back of the field for the first time in his brief career.

Dean offers up no excuse for Doonbeg’s miscue behind the gate at Windsor, but says the break turning for home was simply a matter of the colt and driver Jody Jamieson finding themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“He made a little break leaving, caught the field and then around the last turn he got caught in behind some dead horses and he run right up over top of one,” explains the Campbellville resident, who trains Doonbeg for breeders Clay Harland Horner and Scott Horner of Toronto and his former employer, Stew Firlotte’s Torlando Farms Inc. of Orlando, Florida.

Following the Windsor start, Doonbeg finished fifth in a two-year-old conditioned contest at Mohawk on October 3 and then started to show the first signs of sickness. Dean had hoped to prep the pacer for his second Gold Series start with the October 24 overnight, but opted to scratch when those early signs evolved into the high white blood count reading last week.

“He just hit a little bump in the road and we are trying to get that straightened out,” says Dean, adding that he has altered the colt’s training routine this week as a result of the abnormal test.

“What I’m going to do this week, instead of training him one day tough, I’m going to train him one single every day right up until Saturday,” explains the longtime horseman. “I’ll just let him go where he wants to go. I’ve never done it with him before, but I’m going to do it this week because I don’t want to jeopardize his health.”

If things go as planned, Doonbeg will start from post five in the second Gold elimination on Saturday, facing off against a tough field of former stakes winners including Metro elimination winner Impeccable from post two.

Dr. Ian Moore trains Impeccable for his partners, William Shearer of Bedford, Nova Scotia, R G McGroup Ltd. of Bathurst, New Brunswick and David Smith of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Campbellville resident, Shearer and R G McGroup also share ownership on three-year-old pacing colt Astronomical, who will make his bid for a third straight Gold Final title, and his sixth straight victory, from post one in the C$130,000 Gold Final.

Big Bonus, the other winner from last weekend’s elimination round, will start right beside Astronomical in post two in the fifth race.

Friday’s first race goes in behind the gate at 7:40 p.m. at Woodbine Racetrack and the two-year-old pacing colts will battle in races two and three. The top five finishers from each elimination will return to the Rexdale oval next Saturday, November 5 for their last Gold Final. Two races later the three-year-old pacing colts will wrap up their regular season with the last C$130,000 Gold Final of their careers.