Photo Color aims for Crown

Although trainer Ron Gurfein may have surprised some people by entering Cantab Hall in the Breeders Crown 3-Year-Old Colt Trot after scratching the horse "sick" out of the second heat of the Kentucky Futurity, some people were also surprised when the name Photo Color was placed in the entry box.



Photo Color, who burst into prominence as a freshman with a 1:56.2 victory in a Campbellville elim at Mohawk, has had a rough go of it in 2004. He has made eight starts, with only two wins and $10,010 in earnings. Trainer Erv Miller, who shares ownership in the horse they call "The Red Colt," recently handed him off to Hall of Fame conditioner Chuck Sylvester to try and right the ship.



Photo Color comes into the Breeders Crown having not raced since Sept. 19 at The Red Mile where he broke stride early and was a non-factor in a 3-year-old Open Trot. It was after that start that Sylvester began training, with the sophomore finishing second and third in a pair of qualifiers in Lexington, race-timed in 1:57.3 (last quarter in :27.3) and 1:56.4 (:27.4), respectively.



"I've sent him to (trainer) Mark Harder up in Canada for the race and Mark said he trained him the other day and he trained real good," Sylvester told The Horseman Wednesday morning by cell phone while visiting his mother in Florida. "He seems to be in good shape coming into the race."



Sylvester said the primary reason he entered Photo Color, who will have had 34 days off between pari-mutuel starts, is because Gurfein told him he wouldn't be entering Cantab Hall, the 2003 Trotter of the Year.



"Gurfein told me he wasn't going to I thought then the race would be wide-open and that we would take a shot," said Sylvester.

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