Terry Hunter, co-owner of the Campbellville Training Centre, only paid a combined $8,400 at Standardbred Canada horse sales for Isthatallyagot and Rebelious Royalty, a pair of now-two-year-old trotting fillies
which will now be racing for big stakes in Saturday's OSS Super Finals at Woodbine Racetrack.
Isthatallyagot, a daughter of Southwind Lustre out of the Wesgate Crown mare Zorgwijk Davita, has earned her way to Saturday's Super Finals with points banked from an overall seasonal record of 3-2-3 from 11 starts, good for a solid $112,800 in purses.
Hunter told Trot Insider that even though he hadn't set out to court Isthatallyagot, the yearling filly caught his eye at the due to her conformation, one in which he found very familiar. The filly's eventual $2,400 purchase price has proven to be quite the bargain.
"I didn't realize she was in the sale or her breeding. When she walked through the ring, I said to myself, 'she looks like Mopey Corey,' explained Hunter, who owns Mopey Corey 3,1:59.3h ($219,324) along with horseman Anthony MacDonald and Bruce Gaum. "She looked almost exactly like him. I think that there was a good chance that I could've got her for about $1,000, but during the bidding, I looked over and realized that I was actually bidding against Anthony MacDonald."
Fast forward to present day and MacDonald is performing the driving duties on Isthatallyagot. James MacDonald is training the filly, which will be starting from Post 6 in the $300,000 event, carded as Race 4. She has been assessed at 20-1 odds on the morning line and is one of eight fillies that are gauged at 20-1 or higher early.
Rebelious Royalty, by Mutineer and out of the Royal Prestige mare Royal Font, has also been pegged at long odds in the morning line. Even though the filly will be starting from the rail spot, the pupil of James MacDonald is 25-1 at initial estimations. Mark MacDonald will be at the filly's lines.
"Rebelious Royalty always stays on the trot, so when she ran last week we just couldn't believe it," Hunter said about the $6,000 Canadian Open purchase. "To make things worse, she ran in and caused another filly to send [Rebelious Royalty] offstride as well."
Although both of the fillies will need things to go their way if they are going to take down the top fillies in the provincial program, Hunter et al have felt all along that the pair belongs amongst Ontario's best.
"Isthatallyagot always looked like Gold material," he said. "Rebelious Royalty is just a tiny filly, so at first we weren't sure if she was suited for the Gold level. We were crossing our fingers all along that they would make it on to the Super Finals. The two fillies really impressed us as yearlings. Everyone associated with these two fillies thought that with what they had shown us, they could've qualified as yearlings."
Hunter wanted to give many thanks to all of the staff that have made quite the difference with the two young pacers. He also stated that he thinks his training centre has also been a significant factor in the fillies being able to maximize their potential.
"James MacDonald, all of his staff, and Anthony MacDonald have done an incredible job with both of these fillies -- they all really do deserve a great deal of credit. These two have beaten some expensive and very well bred fillies.
"Both the driver and trainer and I truly do believe that another big aspect of these fillies' success can be attributed to the Campbellville Training Centre. I know that since I am a part owner of the training centre, some may think that comes off as a self-serving statement, but that is really the way I feel. The facilities are top notch and the track is phenomenal.
"We only lost one training day all of last year, and not many facilities that I know of can boast a number like that. We had people ask to ship in from racetracks on some off days last year in order to train their horses over our track. We're currently having a company test a prototype conditioner over our track right now. The company opted to use it on our track instead of on the raceway tracks and things are going great."
First-race post time for Saturday’s 12-race program is 7:30 p.m., and if you can’t make it to Woodbine Racetrack for the championship card be sure to tune in for a special three-hour edition of Race Night on the Score. Coast-to-coast coverage airs from 8:00 - 11:00 p.m.
To participate in Standardbred Canada's OSS Super Final Trivia contest, head over to Jeff Porchak's blog and answer the questions.
To view Saturday’s harness racing entries, click here.
Click here for TrackIT’s preliminary program pages for Saturday evening’s card of racing.