Acton, ON resident Karen Hudon returned to the Ontario Sires Stakes driving ranks last month after a two year hiatus and has racked up an impressive three victories in six starts with a pair of two-year-old trotting fillies

, one of whom will make her Gold Series debut at Mohawk Racetrack on Thursday, August 19.

Magic Wheel earned the promotion to the Gold Series ranks with a dominant victory in Grassroots action at Flamboro Downs on August 13. Starting from the outside Post 8, Magic Wheel led the field through all stations before cruising under the wire four and three-quarter lengths ahead in 2:02.2.

The filly will make her Gold Series debut from Post 4 in Thursday’s fourth $40,000 Gold elimination, but Hudon says fans should not expect a carbon copy of last week’s mile.

“She would like to have some snap off the gate, but I really don’t want her to get too excited leaving,” says Hudon, who shares ownership of Magic Wheel with Margaret Payne of St. Augustine, Florida. “She can race any way.”

Trained by Hudon’s husband Joe Hudon Jr., Magic Wheel made her Ontario Sires Stakes debut in the Grassroots season opener at Grand River Raceway on July 14, trotting around the half-mile oval to a runner-up finish. In the second Grassroots event, on July 30 at Rideau Carleton Raceway, the daughter of Kadabra and WS Balanced Wheel finished third from the outside Post 8 in spite of missing a week of training following the Grand River event.

“She was sick the week after Grand River, so she went into Rideau kind of short,” recalls Hudon. “You learn the hard way, when they are sick, to back off and give them the time.”

Magic Wheel’s early season success has not come as an immense surprise to the Hudon’s, who liked the filly as a youngster and were impressed by her skill development through the winter.

“She was easy. She got a little racy the closer she got to racing, but other than that she’s been good,” notes the horsewoman.

“We liked her enough this year that we did breed the mare back to Kadabra,” she adds.

Hudon says the filly shares an aggressive streak with her grandmother What Wheel, a winner of $103,132 who was part of the Hudon Stable in 1995. The mare arrived in Acton the year after Joe trained and drove her full brother Bye Tsem ($484,911) to a successful sophomore season that included a third-place finish in the Hambletonian and an O’Brien Award.

The Payne’s retained What Wheel as a broodmare and her second foal, WS Balanced Wheel, made just two starts before her racing career was ended by injury. Although they had not trained the filly, when Margaret Payne asked the Hudon’s if they were interested in being part of WS Balanced Wheel’s second career as a broodmare, the couple was delighted to renew their association with the family.

WS Balanced Wheel’s first foal was Berndt Axle, who has had a modest racing career with earnings of $18,861, so Payne and the Hudon’s are thoroughly enjoying Magic Wheel’s early season success.

“It’s fun when you get some young ones that you raised and they race well. You say, ‘This horse is mine!’ Instead of saying, ‘I wish I didn’t own this horse,’” says Hudon with a laugh. “It’s a little reward after all the hard work you put into these guys.”

Hudon’s enjoyment has been increased through her return to the race bike. The last horse she drove regularly in the Ontario Sires Stakes program was freshman trotting filly Awesome Mattie in 2007.

“We talked about me driving the trotting fillies instead of Joe,” she recalls. “I hadn’t driven for the last year, but we didn’t have a filly that we owned, so Joe said, ‘You should drive these two fillies.’”

In addition to Magic Wheel, Hudon has piloted Dabrina to two wins and one third in Grassroots action. At the halfway point in the season Dabrina — another daughter of Kadabra — sits atop the two-year-old trotting filly Grassroots standings with 112 points and Magic Wheel is tied for second with 87.

Hudon knows the competition will be stiff in Thursday’s Gold elimination, among the fillies she and Magic Wheel face in the ninth race are the division’s second and third ranked point earners, Peach Martini from Post 5 and My Whispering Eye from Post 6. In addition, with four Gold eliminations, only the top two finishers are assured of a berth in next week’s Gold final. Two third-place finishers will advance through a random draw.

“You have to finish top two to be guaranteed into the final, that’s tough sledding in a 10 horse field,” notes the driver. “It’ll be interesting. We’ll find out soon enough if she’s a Gold.”

The $40,000 Gold eliminations are slated for Races 1, 4, 7, and 9 on Mohawk Racetrack’s Thursday evening program, which gets under way at 7:30 p.m.

To view Thursday's entries, click here.

(OSS)