Greg Johnson isn't totally buying into the argument that the Ontario Sires Stakes two-year-old trotting colt division is all about Buckhams Bay and then everyone else. He's going to get a chance to prove his theory Wednesday night at Grand River Raceway.
Plato, is his big gun. This past Wednesday the gelding showed plenty of grit in winning his elimination with a 1:59.2 mile over the half-mile track and he looks for another good effort in the final from post three.
"I'm not taking anything away from Buckhams Bay. He's done everything he's had to and is unbeaten," says Johnson who makes his home in Milton, Ontario.
"But my horse was fighting an infection in that first Gold final where we finished fourth to him. After the gold elim we checked his blood and the white count was up so we treated him but there was only so much we could do in a short period.
"After the final we checked again and it was really high so we hit him with a different antibiotic and it did the trick. I was a little concerned that he might be short in the stretch the other night but he did scrap it out. He's a competitor and that was what got him there."
Johnson and his father George bought Plato in January from trainer Riina Rekila.
"Some people wonder about the colt's breeding. His sire Andover Image is a son of Balanced Image who never raced for Erkki Laakkonnen. Riina has the mother who is a Garland Lobell mare so there is plenty of blood there but just not commercial," explains Johnson.
"We have the three-year-old and got interested in this one too. In January I came over to her farm near Campbellville and trained him a mile in 2:35. Riina gets rolling with hers early and after we went a mile I was sold and everything he did from that point was with very little effort. I think right down to a mile in 2:07 I never spoke to the horse. He almost trained himself."
At this point Plato has won $50,400 but a win Wednesday would more than surpass that.
"All he has is the Ontario Sires Stakes because he was not an expensive horse. He's bigger than average but everything is in proportion," says Johnson who is based at the farm of Scott Anderson near Campbellville.
"When he won that first Gold elimination at Mohawk, Riina came over the next day with a cake that had Plato's name on it. That showed me she's got a bit of class because not many people would take the time to do that sort of thing. It was appreciated. Good cake too."
