Tattoo, Round Two

A fellow user of the on the Horse Council of British Columbia forums has access to the standardbred registry. She pulled a few potential Tonka matches for me last week, but the process is somewhat complicated by the fact he is gray -- he may have been registered as his birth colour. While I understand the genetics underlying the gray modification, the mechanics remain a mystery to me. Tonka is heavily flea-bitten with brown ticks on his body and black ticks down his legs so I have always assumed that he was born bay, but others tell me it's not that simple. Yesterday we hosed him down to check for pink skin, and he has some on the inside of both hind pasterns -- none in the front nor on his face. There is a 1989 gelding named Kilkerran Jake tattooed as H8015, registered as "brown" and having the same white markings. His last known owner is listed as living in Nova Scotia in 2002, and I am trying to get in touch with him via the tracks out there. A quick Google search reveals that he is still in the racing business, so let's hope something comes of it!