After an extra week of vacation, Ontario’s top two-year-old pacing fillies will return to Gold Series action at Woodbine Racetrack on Saturday evening and will compete for $170,000 in the last Gold final of their campaign
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With only 10 fillies entering for the last Gold Series contest, no eliminations were necessary and all 10 fillies advanced straight to Saturday’s final. For those looking for a prep race, Woodbine hosted a two-year-old filly conditioned event last weekend, and early season Gold final winner Tiz To Dream stepped off a 1:53.2 personal best to claim her fifth victory of the season.
"She’s a nice mare," said trainer Gregg McNair, who shares ownership on Tiz To Dream with Paul Kidd of Guelph, Ont. "She’s been good all along. You can tell by the way we staked her that we liked her."
Tiz To Dream made her debut in a June 30 overnight at London’s Western Fair Raceway, where she was an effortless winner in 2:00. Her first stakes engagement was a division of the Robert Stewart Stakes at Mohawk Racetrack on July 6, where she finished third in a 1:54.3 mile.
In the Gold Series season opener at Mohawk in July, the daughter of Grinfromeartoear finished second in her elim and then controlled the pace from start to finish in the final to secure a 1:54 victory. Next up was the inaugural Battle of the Belles at Grand River Raceway, and Tiz To Dream was an easy winner in her elim, but made an early break in the August 3 final and finished fifth. Back in Gold Series action on August 9 at Mohawk, the talented young pacer logged a third, and came back with another third-place effort in the August 16 Gold final.
A fourth in the elims for the Shes A Great Lady at Mohawk left her out of the final, and she finished fifth in a consolation event on September 5, then jumped back to the winner’s circle with a 1:53.3 triumph in her division of the Champlain Stakes on September 11. Dropping down to the Grassroots program, Tiz To Dream finished second over the Windsor oval on October 4, and then prepped for Saturday’s Gold final with last weekend’s victory.
"We were going to give her six weeks off, but then we decided we’d race her in the Grassroots," McNair said of the decision to skip the October Gold event at Windsor Raceway. "We didn’t want to go to Windsor twice with her, she hasn’t been too far from home."
McNair’s reluctance to ship Tiz To Dream long distances stems in part from the filly’s struggles with muscle soreness. The Guelph resident manages her condition through a variety of strategies, including maximizing her outdoor time and minimizing the amount of time she spends standing in one place.
"She has a lot of trouble with muscle soreness. A lot of horses have trouble with that, and she’s one of them. She had it before we even starting racing her," the horseman explained. "She gets a lot of paddock time."
With young reinsman Doug McNair in the race bike, Tiz To Dream will be rolling away from Post 2 in Saturday’s lucrative Gold final. Reigning Gold final champion Western Silk will start from Post 7, with the only other Gold final winner, Bay Girl, getting Post 4.
First-race post time at Woodbine on Saturday evening is 8:00 p.m., and the talented two-year-old pacing fillies will light up the seven-eighths mile oval in Race 5.
To view the harness racing entries for Saturday at Woodbine, click here.
(OSS)