by Sandra Snyder

Campbellville, ON — Ontario’s exciting 3-year-old pacing colts will show off their skills at Mohawk Racetrack on Saturday evening (July 28) in a pair of C$40,000 Gold eliminations.

Gregg McNair will harness three colts in the contest and is hoping that Hard To Mach, Lucky Jet and Secretsoftheknight can all advance to next week’s C$130,000 Gold final in this season’s tough sophomore pacing colt division.

“They are three nice horses to have,” says McNair. “But it’s a tough year to have them in, there are a couple of really stud ones in there. Those two, Michael’s Power and Warrawee Needy, could compete with 3-year-old colts anywhere. They are top of the line colts; a notch above the rest of them I think.”

Both Lucky Jet and Secretsoftheknight will face the division’s heavyweights in the second elimination, Warrawee Needy from post two and Michael’s Power from post four. Lucky Jet will line up between the expected favorites and McNair is looking for an improvement on the seventh-place result the colt logged in the July 21 Canadian Breeders Championship at Mohawk.

“The other night he shied away from the gate,” explains the horseman, who conditions Lucky Jet for breeder Ciara Stable, Michelle Crawford and Edward Kollross. “He likes to leave pretty good, but he got away at the back.”

Prior to the Canadian Breeders start the long-legged youngster had scored a 1:50.3 victory in an overnight event at Mohawk and McNair hopes the son of Jereme’s Jet and $287,851 winner My Metallica returns to that form in his Gold Series debut. The colt earned the promotion to the Gold Series after scoring one win and one second in the first two Grassroots events of the season.

Secretsoftheknight will start from post seven in the seven-horse elimination and McNair expects another consistent effort from the son of Mach Three and $95,155 winner Doc’s Reward. Through 10 sophomore starts last year’s Grassroots champion has amassed two wins, three seconds and two thirds for earnings of $197,477.

“He trained back like he was going to be a nice colt, and he has been,” says McNair, who trains Secretsoftheknight for owners Tony Lawrence, Leonard Gamble, John Newell and Graham Hopkins.

In the first Gold Series event of the season, Secretsoftheknight was third in both his June 30 elimination and the July 6 final at Georgian Downs, finishing behind Michael’s Power and Piston Broke in both races. He heads into Saturday’s test off a runner-up finish to Michael’s Power in the Canadian Breeders Championship, and McNair is hoping he is not coming down with a bug that saw stablemate Hard To Mach miss the Georgian Downs Gold final.

“He was all out to be second the other night,” notes McNair. “He raced good, but I don’t think he’s as healthy as he could be either.”

Hard To Mach finished second in his June 30 Gold elimination, but the night of the final did not have his usual pep during the warm-up so McNair and his staff checked the colt’s temperature when he returned to the paddock. Just slightly elevated immediately after the warm-up mile, the temperature continued to climb through the evening, so McNair withdrew the youngster from the race.

With treatment and a two-week rest the son of Mach Three and $287,215 winner Angel In Disguise was ready to rumble in last week’s Canadian Breeders Championship and logged a fourth-place finish for owners Lindsey and Connie Rankin.

The Rankins and Maurice Goldschmidt taught the colt his early lessons and raced him through much of his freshman season, sending him to McNair last September. In 10 freshman starts the pacer posted one Gold elimination win and finished third in the season ending Super Final, banking just over $100,000.

“He was getting sick and they thought maybe it was from trucking, but we’ve had trouble with him too,” reflects McNair.

Hard To Mach will make his second sophomore Gold Series start from post six in the first elimination, which features just six horses. The top five finishers from each elimination will return to Mohawk Racetrack for the second C$130,000 Gold final of their 2012 campaign on Saturday (August 4).

Post time for Mohawk Racetrack’s Saturday evening program is 7:10 p.m., with the 3-year-old pacing colts battling in races two and three.

To view Hard To Mach, Lucky Jet and Secretsoftheknight’s previous Ontario Sires Stakes starts please go to the following links: Hard To Mach; Lucky Jet; and Secretsoftheknight.