Southwind Wasabi is the 3-1 favourite in the $130,000 Filly World Trotting Derby on Friday, September 4 at the DuQuoin State Fair

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Southwind Wasabi will be racing from post three with Tyler Buter in the sulky. The filly has got a two-race win streak, including a lifetime mark of 1:54.3, taken in the American National Stakes at Balmoral Park on August 29.

The recent developments are a relief to trainer and co-owner Chuck Sylvester, who thought the first part of the year would be better than it was for the filly, which struggled through its first six starts.

“We thought at the beginning of the year that we’d be competitive all year and she just wasn’t,” he said. “I don’t know why. Something happened to her turned out in the field and she lost big blotches of her hair. She went through something and I don’t know what it was. She rolled in something, we’re not sure, but all at once, her hair starts falling out. She always wants to roll in a mud puddle, maybe she picked up something in there. It happened right when we wanted her to be good, the end of July.

“She just couldn’t go, but now she seems fine. We gave her a little time off (after the filly's sixth-place finish in the Hambletonian Oaks on August 8) and sent her out to Indianapolis (for the Horseman Stake on August 22) and that [win] didn’t impress me too much. She only went in 1:56, but she trotted home good (in :27.1) and I said, ‘We’ll see next week.’ Then the next week, she was great (in winning the American National). I’m not sure what it was, but she was much better, so I expect her to race good tomorrow.”

(Harness Racing Communications)