Trainer Dustin Jones didn’t want the season to end on a sour note for two-year-old trotting filly Tommi Canu Hearme.
So the Ontario-based trainer is taking a shot with her in the Breeders Crown, a stakes in which he’s tasted victory twice before with two-year-olds. The Royalty For Life filly will contest one of three Crown eliminations on Friday night at Pocono Downs, which will see the top three finishers advance to the final the following weekend.
Tommi Canu Hearme was a disappointing eighth this past Saturday in her $225,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final at Woodbine Mohawk Park. She was last most of the race and then made a break entering the stretch.
“We didn’t want to end her year with a race like that,” said Jones, 57, a native of Melbourne, QC. “I thought she would have been first or second. Don’t know why she made a break.”
Tommi Canu Hearme is the longest shot on the morning line for her Crown elimination, but she’s been known to surprise. She was 13-1 when she captured an OSS Gold event at Flamboro Downs in September and 39-1 when victorious in a Champlain division at Mohawk in August.
Martiniontherocks was 30-1 when she gave Jones his first Crown victory at Pocono in 2010. The other came in 2012, with two-year-old trotting colt Wheeling N Dealin, when the Crown was held at Woodbine.
A $41,000 yearling at the London sale, Tommi Canu Hearme has collected just over $100,000 from nine starts this year for the partnership of Jones, the Sjoblom Racing Stable and Montrealer Jocelyn Hebert. Jones and Hebert were impressed enough to recently purchase the dam, Tommi My Girl, in foal again to Royalty For Life.
Their filly will start from Post 2 Friday for driver Brett Miller, in an elimination that will include entries from two other Canadian trainers, Rene Allard (When Doves Cry) and Benoit Baillargeon (Sette Deo), as well as division standout The Ice Dutchess, from the Jimmy Takter barn.
“It’s a tough bunch of fillies. I’d like to hit the board, and I think she can, but it all depends on her,” said Jones, who will head south next month for his second winter in Florida.
“I think going to Florida will extend my career by 15 years,” he said. “It just completely changes my mindset. Things are more laid back. I was sick of freezing. And now you’ve got something to look forward to in the fall and in the spring.”
(A Trot Insider exclusive by Paul Delean)