After a month long hiatus in their Ontario Sires Stakes schedule, the cream of the province’s three-year-old trotting filly crop return to action on Thursday evening at

Rideau Carleton Raceway in a pair of $40,000 Gold Eliminations.

Reigning Gold Final champion Cross Of Lorraine will begin defence of her title from Post 3 in the first elimination and trainer Carl Jamieson is expecting an improved performance from her last start. In the Sept. 6 Simcoe Stakes at Mohawk Racetrack the daughter of Angus Hall-Katya Hanover made a break leaving the gate from Post 10 and knocked herself out of contention, the first time she has missed the top three since May 30 when she also made an error in a division of the Bud Light Stakes at Flamboro Downs.

“I hope she can redeem herself Thursday,” says Jamieson, who shares ownership of the talented filly with Thomas Kyron of Toronto, ON and Hope Johnson of London, ON.

“I think she’ll be all right. It’s along way to go to find out,” he adds wryly.

Jamieson says Cross of Lorraine was not at her best in the training mile leading up to the Simcoe start — her first off a three week break — or during the warm up on race night. There did not seem to be anything physically wrong with the filly and Jamieson says she seems to have recovered her equilibrium in time for the resumption of the Gold Series campaign.

“She just didn’t seem herself,” says the Princeton, ON resident. “But I trained her there Saturday (Sept. 11) and she was a different horse. She was sharp as a tack. She trained with another horse and she was full of herself. So whatever was bothering her she seems to have got over it.”

Last weekend’s training mile — and the one before the Simcoe start — are two among a mere handful of occasions Cross Of Lorraine has been trained this summer. The winner of $292,052 was raced just three times as a two-year-old due to problems with her knees, and x-rays at the start of her sophomore season indicated that she had not healed as flawlessly as Jamieson hoped, so he has been employing a variety of strategies to accelerate the filly’s healing process.

Rather than logging miles on a racetrack, Cross Of Lorraine has maintained her fitness in an equine swimming pool. She has been treated in a hyperbaric chamber and with magnetic therapy, and Jamieson recently added laser therapy to his arsenal of treatments.

“We’ve been treating her with the laser machine. It helps heal the bone up,” explains Jamieson, who first employed the treatment on a colt with sesamoiditis and saw positive results. “We’re hoping it helps a little bit on the knee too.”

Fortunately, Cross Of Lorraine is a pleasure to work around, and has adapted effortlessly to her unusual routine, which seems to be working. In 12 sophomore starts Cross Of Lorraine has posted eight wins and one second, earned two Gold Final trophies and set Ontario Sires Stakes records on both five-eighths mile and seven-eighths mile tracks. While her 1:54.2 five-eighths record, set on July 10 at Georgian Downs, might be out of reach in September’s cooler weather, Rideau Carleton’s three-year-old trotting filly record of 1:55.3 could be in danger.

“She’s a beautiful filly on the track, a natural trotter,” reflects the horseman. “She can leave out off the gate good, and then she’ll just kind of wait until they get close, and then take off again.”

Among the fillies Cross Of Lorraine and driver Jody Jamieson face in Thursday’s Gold Elimination are their archrival Emmylou Who from Post 6 and Ontario Sires Stakes newcomer Levis Lady, who spent her summer racing south of the border, from Post 2.

The second Gold Elimination features Standardbred Breeders of Ontario Association Stake winner Random Destiny, a former Gold Final winner, from Post 6. The top four fillies from each elimination, plus one fifth-place finisher selected by random draw, will return to Rideau Carleton on Sept. 23 for the fourth $130,000 Gold Final on their sophomore calendar.

Post time for Rideau Carleton Raceway’s Thursday evening program is 6:30 pm, with the spotlight turning onto the three-year-old trotting fillies in Races 2 and 4.

(O.S.S.)

To view Thursday’s entries, click here.