After a two month break, Ontario Sires Stakes excitement sweeps back into Innisfil on Friday, September 10 with seven $24,000 Grassroots divisions for the
province’s talented three-year-old pacing fillies.
Local filly On The Cusp heads into Friday’s Grassroots skirmish off an impressive 1:53 score at Mohawk Racetrack on September 2, a night when the seven-eighths mile track was rated one second slower than normal. The filly’s only other Grassroots start was at Kawartha Downs on July 24 where she finished second by a nose in a 1:54.1 mile, not a bad effort from a filly, who had last raced on May 10.
“We really liked her early on, but she had some set backs this summer. She got sick and it was almost two months by the time we raced her again,” explains Thornton, ON resident Stephen Byron, who shares ownership of On The Cusp with Sit N Go Stables of Barrie, ON, Ian MacIntosh of Alliston, ON and John Van Reenen of Cayuga, ON. “Her last three starts she’s been getting better and better; and I think the colder weather will help her.”
Byron’s older brother David, who also makes his home in Thornton, trains On The Cusp, who was unraced at two due to an injury. After benefiting from some time off, the filly returned to training and made her first lifetime start on April 3 at Georgian Downs where she finished in a dead heat for second in a time of 1:56.2.
Three races later she made her first appearance in the winner’s circle, capturing a leg of the Ontario Spring Series at Woodbine Racetrack in 1:53. The filly’s third-place finish in the May 10 final of the Ontario Spring Series was her last start until the July 24 Grassroots event.
“We liked her as a two-year-old, before she hurt herself,” recalls Byron. “We’ve had to wait on her, so hopefully the wait will pay off.”
The daughter of Camluck and $524,357 winner Headline Hanover, who was a Breeders Crown champion at three and a Pennsylvania Sires Stakes champion at two, certainly has the pedigree to excel on the racetrack, and Byron says she is a big, strong filly. That size is what prompted her connections to skip the August 14 Grassroots event contested over Woodstock Raceway’s half-mile oval.
“She’s more of a big track horse. The smaller tracks, with the tighter turns, are not her forte,” notes the reinsman.
“She struggles in the turns, but as for driving her, you can do anything with her,” he adds.
Byron will steer On The Cusp from Post 7 in the third race, and is hoping the filly’s versatility will offset any negative impact from the outside post.
“She can race either way, she’s kind of handy that way,” says the reinsman. “I’m hoping she’ll be good.”
With just two Grassroots events remaining, On The Cusp will have a tough time earning enough points to be among the 16 fillies who advance to the Semifinal round. The current cut off is 74 points and On The Cusp is ranked fifty-sixth, along with the eight other fillies who have accumulated 25 points. And with the Semifinals slated for Western Fair Raceway’s half-mile oval, Byron and his partners are considering some different options for the young pacer.
“We are hoping she races good enough, and keeps getting better, that we might try her in the last Gold, but that’s way down the road,” he explains. “She’s coming into this race real good, so we’re hoping it keeps going.
“We need a couple more good races out of her before we can tackle the Gold fillies.”
On The Cusp is one of three horses Byron currently owns a share of, and the longtime horseman says she is carrying the other two on her broad shoulders.
“It’s kind of nice when one you own does well. I only have a piece of three right now, and she’s by far paying for the other ones,” he says with a wry chuckle. “They can’t all do well at the same time.”
Through her 10 lifetime starts, On The Cusp has posted two wins, three seconds and two thirds for earnings of $41,505. The filly will be aiming to add to her statistics in Friday’s third race, the second of the Grassroots divisions.
The three-year-old pacing fillies will star in Races 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 10 on Georgian Downs’ Friday evening program, which gets under way at 7:25 p.m.
To view Friday's entries, click here.
(OSS)