Although three-year-old pacing filly Nora Lee has not captured any Ontario Sires Stakes events this season, Woodbine Racetrack fans will have no problem picking her out of the crowd in Monday night’s final of the Trillium Series

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"She’s a unique filly," trainer Gary Adair said. "We race her all in pink — pink harness, pink lines.

"One of the owners, Annemarie Colville, she went through a bout of cancer and she wanted to race one in pink," he continued. "I said, that’s perfectly fine with me."

Colville can often be found warming the filly up before her races, and on October 24 the resident of Burlington, Ont. travelled to Kawartha Downs for the track’s annual 'Think Pink' fundraiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, where she and Nora Lee led the post parade — attired from head to toe in pink.

"The race secretary had seen her race and called us. We went down and actually did the post parade," Adair said. "Annie got to do the post parade with her all dressed in pink."

Adair, a resident of Campbellville, Ont., shares ownership on Nora Lee with Colville and R A W Equine of Milton, Ont. and has sent the filly behind the starting gate on 32 occasions this season. The daughter of Modern Art and Colville’s mare Puttingontheglitz has tallied four wins, four seconds and four thirds, and has banked $53,142. She made five appearances in the Grassroots program and logged two thirds and two fifths. She finished fifth in her first Trillium Series start, which came last Sunday at Flamboro Downs.

"I don’t think she’s ever put in a bad start for us," the trainer said. "She was in a tough division last Sunday at Flamboro — there were a few in there that had paced in 1:51 and won in 1:52 or 1:53 — but she tried and got some money for us and that was the main thing."

With two of last weekend’s Trillium winners having drawn into Monday's second split, Nora Lee faces a somewhat less intimidating field from Post 6 in the first $34,421 division. Jack Moiseyev will steer the filly, and Adair expects the veteran reinsman to have the filly in position to earn a second share of the Trillium Series purse money.

"She can leave and get spotted and she can pass horses coming for home, too," he noted. "There’s only seven in it, so she shouldn’t be too far away."

Following Monday’s Trillium test, Nora Lee is looking forward to a well-deserved winter vacation before resuming her training regimen in advance of the Ontario Girls Pacing Series at Woodbine in February.

"She’s had 32 starts, so I was going to give her December off, and then she’s got a stake, the Ontario Girls in February," Adair said. "I’ll get her ready for January, give her a couple of starts at the end of January, and have her tight for February. We plan on racing her as long as we can."

Nora Lee and her peers will face off in the second race on Woodbine Racetrack’s Monday evening program, which gets underway at 7:20 p.m. The other Trillium Series battle will take place in Race 4, with last weekend’s winners Star Of Show and Apricot Brandy facing off from Posts 4 and 7, respectively. Driver Jody Jamieson piloted both fillies to 1:54 victories at Flamboro Downs, but the resident of Cambridge, Ont. has opted to steer Apricot Brandy in Monday’s skirmish.

"It was unlucky for me that they drew into the same division, but really, everyone else is unlucky drawing in against Apricot Brandy," Jamieson said. "She’s just a real, real good filly."

Jamieson will steer Apricot Brandy for trainer Blair Burgess and owners Robert Burgess of Campbellville and Karin Olsson Burgess of Milton. Through 23 starts this season, the American-bred youngster has posted six wins, six seconds and five thirds, for earnings of $130,554.

"That was a huge trip in 1:54 flat at Flamboro, but at Woodbine the week before she won in 1:52.2. She came home in :26 and a piece at the end and I never pulled the plugs, but that’s nether here nor there. The point is how easily she did it. I don’t think there’s too many fillies that can go that fast, and she’s proven to do it quite easily."

To view Woodbine's harness racing entries for Monday, click here.

(OSS)