Kawartha Downs wraps up its 2009 Ontario Sires Stakes season next Tuesday with four $24,000 Grassroots divisions for the two-year-old trotting fillies

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Among the fillies hoping to add a few more points to their tally in the last regular season event is Pondo Mazey, who will start from Post 6 in the seventh race. The daughter of Thunder Road and $152,585 winner Pondo Cillin has three seconds to her credit through her first three provincial outings, for a total of 75 points and a share of fourteenth spot in the division standings.

"She's had three seconds and hopefully we're going to get something Tuesday," says owner Gloria Hewitt of Fraserville.

Hewitt says her husband Herb liked Pondo Mazey from the start of her early lessons. Although the couple sent the filly to trainer Bob Young for the racing season, they have only missed one of her five starts.

"By golly we've been doing some traveling," says Hewitt. "It's been fun. We took the grandkids with us. They just love it."

Hewitt expects her grandchildren, their parents and some of her siblings to be on hand for the filly's Grassroots performance at Kawartha Downs on Tuesday. The event will be bittersweet for the Hewitt's, who mark the five year anniversary of their son Rick's death on October 8. Their ongoing involvement in the harness racing industry stands as a tribute to their son, who bred, owned and trained horses until his death at the age of 46.

"Today's a sad day," admits Hewitt. "You have to go on, and it's very hard sometimes."

Pondo Cillin was one of the horses Rick Hewitt trained, and the mare was retired this year after producing nine foals for the family.

"She's right here behind us for a change, there's a little area she's paddocked in," says Hewitt. "I hadn't seen her for a while.

"We live just south of Kawartha Downs, I can see the track from here," she adds.

In addition to Pondo Mazey, the couple also has the mare's yearling, Pondo Ruba, and weanling, Pondo Vec, who will be looking to follow in their elder sister's footsteps in the next few years.

Pondo Mazey and driver Ross Battin square off against a tough field in the seventh race that includes four other members of the top 16. The two-year-old trotting fillies kick off the Fraserville oval's Tuesday afternoon program at 4:15 p.m., competing in Races 1, 3, 5 and 7.

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To view Tuesday’s harness racing entries, click here.