from the Ontario Sires Stakes

Campbellville, ON — Ontario Sires Stakes postseason action gets underway at Mohawk Racetrack on Thursday evening (Sept. 17) with eight Grassroots semi-finals for the 2-year-old trotters and pacers.

Trainer Blake MacIntosh won the 2-year-old pacing colt Grassroots championship in 2014 with Star Cover and he will send out two hopefuls on Thursday, including 2-year-old pacing filly division leader Sports Expert.

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Sports Expert scored the fastest of her three regular season Grassroots wins at Mohawk Racetrack on Sept. 1, stopping the clock at 1:54.2 for driver James MacDonald.

“She’s feeling really good. She trained well this morning (Sept. 15) and we’re really happy with the way she’s going into the race,” said MacIntosh of Sports Expert. “She had an easy race Saturday night; she got away last in the Champlain and closed hard and just missed a check. I wasn’t happy we didn’t get a check, but I was happy with the way she raced.”

In her four regular season Grassroots starts Sports Expert posted three wins and one second, clocking a personal best 1:54.2 in the Sept. 1 event at Mohawk. The daughter of Sportswriter and Lyons Mandi has seven starts under her belt and has banked $25,955 for MacIntosh and his partners Touch Stone Farms and 30 Plus Stable.

“They’re good people. They’re always supportive of whatever I decide to do with the filly and they follow her very closely,” said MacIntosh of the ownership group. “Joe Intine (of Touch Stone Farms) and his wife (Barbara) are always at every race, they come to the barn once or twice a week and follow her very closely and are very involved with the horse. The 30 Plus group (Andy, Stan and Tim Klemencic) has come up a couple times, but they live in Trenton so it’s harder for them to get up here.”

MacIntosh expects a solid group of supporters will be on hand when the filly lines up at post three in the first C$20,000 2-year-old pacing filly semi-final on Thursday. Doug McNair will be in the race bike as the filly aims for a top five finish and a berth in the Sept. 26 Grassroots championship.

McNair and Sports Expert will battle a field of nine challengers in race five, with the second 2-year-old pacing filly semi-final slated for race eight.

In addition to Sports Expert, MacIntosh will also harness a son of Sportswriter, Sporty Mercedes, in the first 2-year-old pacing colt and gelding semi-final. Sporty Mercedes heads into the race off a fifth-place finish in the Sept. 7 event at Grand River Raceway, but MacIntosh is cautiously hopeful that the gelding is poised to deliver a stronger effort on Thursday.

“Sporty Mercedes, he’s been a bit of a disappointment this year. After we gelded him he had two good races and we were pleased, we thought we had him on the right track, and then he got loose on the groom trying to load him just before Georgian (Aug. 23) and he banged himself up and he just hasn’t been the same since,” the trainer explained. “Now, saying that, he trained the best he’s trained in a while this morning (Sept. 15).

“We were high on him during the winter time and he’s sort of been a bit of a disappointment, but hopefully we can get him to the final and things will come around for him,” MacIntosh continued. “He’s a colt we paid into the Metro, and paid into everything else. He’s not a Metro horse, but hopefully he can be a good Grassrooter.”

In four Grassroots starts Sporty Mercedes garnered one win, one fourth, one fifth and one eighth to finish 18th in the point standings. The gelding recorded his personal best 1:55.1 in the Aug. 13 Grassroots test at Rideau Carleton Raceway and has banked $12,024 for MacIntosh and his partners Dan and Kim Sergeant.

Sporty Mercedes will make his bid for a top five finish from post three in the sixth race with Alfie Carroll in the race bike.

The second 2-year-old pacing colt and gelding semi-final will go postward as race 10, wrapping up the evening’s Grassroots action.

The 2-year-old trotting colts and geldings kick off Mohawk Racetrack’s Thursday evening program at 7:25 p.m. in race one and are also featured in race nine, while the 2-year-old trotting fillies wage their semi-final battles in races two and three.

Grassroots postseason action continues at the Campbellville oval on Friday with eight semi-finals for the 3-year-old trotters and pacers.