A quartet of $23,000 Grassroots divisions for two-year-old trotting fillies was featured at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Monday, July 13 and all four winners delivered the kind of professional performance typically seen in far older horses.

You Will Be Queen took the opening division with a 1:59 effort that saw her leave well from Post 5, occupy the front end briefly before letting two rivals go around, and then step back out in the stretch and sprint home to a three and one-quarter length victory. Fan favourite A Blue Blood settled for second and Darling Please finished third.

“You couldn’t ask for better. She left to the front and let one go, let a couple go, and come back out and come wide and win easy,” said trainer Dustin Jones of the trip engineered by driver Chris Christoforou. “What you saw on the track tonight was about how she trained all winter. If she made a break it was just because she wasn’t paying attention or something like that.”

Waterdown, ON resident Jones bred and owns You Will Be Queen in partnership with Hebert Horses Inc. of Montreal, QC. The partners raced the filly’s dam, Dewdle All Day, who earned $382,000 racing in the same Ontario Sires Stakes class as million dollar earners Emoticon Hanover and Caprice Hill.

“She raced against Emoticon Hanover and all them good fillies and still ended up making almost $400,000, so she was a pretty good mare,” said Jones, noting that Royalty For Life daughter You Will Be Queen is the mare’s first foal. “This filly, she’s been good all along. We probably could have went to the Gold, but we wanted to race her on the big track to start.”

In the second $23,500 division fan favourite Imextraspecial had to circle out three wide heading for the three-quarters to find her way to the lead, and still powered home to a one and one-half length victory in 2:01.1. Jones and Can You Swing It finished second and Top Of The Bar was third.

Owen Sound resident Paul Walker trains and drives Imextraspecial for Keith Coulter of Mono, ON, who offered up $95,000 for the Muscle Mass daughter at last fall’s London Selected Yearling Sale.

Less than one week after her arrival in Ontario, Ban Ban Deo took the third division, getting a confident steer from Sylvain Filion who sent the favourite to the lead heading for the half and let her cruise home to a three-quarter length victory in 1:59.1. Tipsy In Dixie finished second and Snowfalla completed the top three.

Owned by John Fielding and Clay Horner of Toronto, ON, Ban Ban Deo learned her early lessons in the Richard “Nifty” Norman stable and will spend the Ontario Sires Stakes season in the barn of Tony O’Sullivan, who said she has been flawless since her arrival.

“She’s completely professional. The first time I took her out on the track at Classy (Lane) nothing seemed to faze her, at Mohawk here tonight nothing fazed her whatsoever. She’s smart,” said O’ Sullivan of the Kadabra daughter. “She’s a decent sized filly; she’s got a lot of leg, she’s long. You could actually see she’s a little bit bigger than what she raced against tonight, and I think that factored into the decision to put her in the Grassroots, just to let her come along at her own speed. But she’s a beautiful filly and I would imagine, as long as everything goes well, I think by the end of the year she’ll be a big strong filly, she’ll fill into herself.”

Charmbo Princess also got a confident steer from Mike Saftic, who left smarty with the filly from Post 2 and then pointed her back toward the front heading by the three-quarters. Charmbo Princess kicked home smartly to post a one and one-quarter length victory in 2:00. Fortune Tellers K finished second and Mag N Lady was third.

“She is a very nice filly. Her mother was a very professional mare and this mare just takes the bit and says, ‘Let’s go!’ And apparently she did everything right tonight,” said Randy Rier, who bred and owns the daughter of Royalty For Life and Hetties Charm in partnership with his brother Jack Rier of Kitchener, ON.

“I was surprised when he moved her the first time, and then he got out, I thought, early enough and I thought oh well, I guess he knows what he’s doing. And then he tried to pull the ear plugs and they wouldn’t come out and I said to him later, I said, ‘That’s okay, because she runs right in when they pop’,” added the Hanover, ON resident with a chuckle. “But they never got out so it’s good. He said she went right on by herself anyway.”

The highly capable two-year-old trotting fillies will make their second Grassroots start at Grand River Raceway on July 29. Complete results from Monday night’s event are available at Woodbine Mohawk Park Results.

On Tuesday evening Woodbine Mohawk Park welcomes back the three-year-old pacing fillies for the second Grassroots event of their season. The fillies open the program at 7 p.m. in the first race and will also be featured in Races 3, 7, 9 and 11.

(OSS)

To view results for Monday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Monday Results – Woodbine Mohawk Park.