Reserve Forces draws in

It came as something of a surprise when Carl Jamieson got the call on Tuesday that his horse, Reserve Forces, had drawn into the field for Saturday night’s Pepsi North America Cup at Mohawk Racetrack.

After all, Reserve Forces, a son of Real Desire, had finished fourth in his elimination last Saturday to another Real Desire offspring, Tell All, and had lost out to Two Twentytwo in a draw amongst the other fourth-place finishers to get into the final, along with the top three finishers in each elim. Instead, he wound up as the also-eligible, so Jamieson entered him in the $100,000 Cup consolation on the undercard.

However, The Quiet Mon, who had qualified for the final by finishing second to Tell All, was scratched prior to Tuesday’s draw for the $1.5 million(C) race because of lameness. Thus, Reserve Forces got a second chance to get in and is now pegged at 25-1 in the morning line. Jamieson figures his colt, who will leave from post nine, has as good a shot in the big race as any of his competition.

“If he’d had a better drive, we would have been second or third in the qualifier,” he said. “The owner (Ken Henwood of Mississauga, Ont.) wasn’t real happy with the way things went in that race, so he picked Andy Miller (who had been scheduled to drive The Quiet Mon) to drive him on Saturday. Ken owns 90 percent of the horse, so it’s really his decision.”

Reserve Forces had previously been driven by Jamieson’s son, Jody, who was forced to choose between his father’s entry and Blair Burgess’s Tell All in the qualifiers, and reluctantly selected the latter.

Lightly-raced Reserve Forces went to the post only four times as a 2 year old before tendon problems forced him to the sidelines, but he posted a promising 1:54 mark and had two wins and a second during his brief campaign.

His sophomore debut was impressive. After winning his qualifier, he posted a career-best 1:52.4 effort in the Diplomat Series at Woodbine, with a final quarter in :26.3. Thus far, in 10 starts, he has racked up three wins, two seconds, and two thirds, with a bankroll of $65,476(C) going into the Pepsi North America Cup.

A fast-closing colt who “races stronger off the pace” according to Jamieson, Reserve Forces “is a horse who really loves racing. He loves to be on the racetrack doing his job, and he’s a really nice horse to be around.” If the colt has an Achilles heel, it’s just that: he suffers from bad feet, Jamieson says, and has spent the last few weeks doing all of his training in a swimming pool rather than on a stonedust surface.

Despite the on-going foot problems, Jamieson expects his charge to have just as good a shot at the Pepsi North America Cup trophy as anyone else in the field. But it’s clear he’s feeling the absence of son Jody at the lines. Miller, he notes, has never driven Reserve Forces, so all he can do is “hope for a decent drive”.

“Maybe we should have stayed in the consolation, but that field looks just as tough as this one, to be honest with you. Anyway, you can’t win if you’re not in it!” (WEG)

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