Windsor Raceway plays host to the first Trillium Series event of the 2009 Ontario Sires Stakes season this Sunday, May 24, sending 10 sophomore trotting fillies after a
lucrative $70,007 purse.
Trotting specialist John Bax will harness two fillies in the contest, Lunar Stream from Post 7 and Parkhill Fantasia from the trailing Post 10. Lunar Stream delivered a solid fourth in the season opening Gold Elimination at Mohawk Racetrack on May 10, and followed it up with a third in an overnight event at the Campbellville oval on May 17, which should put her among the favourites for Sunday’s big prize.
“She’s a little racier this year,” notes Bax, who conditions Lunar Stream for breeders Al Libfeld of Pickering and Marvin Katz of Toronto. “Actually, she ended up last year pretty good. It seemed to take her a while to figure out that she wanted to race.”
As a two-year-old Lunar Stream made 10 appearances, recording one win, one second and one third for earnings of $23,354. The Kadabra daughter’s only victory came over the Windsor Raceway oval in Grassroots action last October, and Bax hopes she can match that effort both on Sunday and through the rest of her sophomore campaign.
“I don’t think she’s a Grand Circuit horse, but I’m still hoping she’ll be a Gold horse,” says the Peterborough resident. “I’m hoping her pedigree will take her to that level.”
While Bax expects Lunar Stream to be a player at the upper echelon of the Ontario Sires Stakes program, he figures Parkhill Fantasia is more likely to find her niche at the Grassroots level. Raced just twice at two, Parkhill Fantasia heads into Sunday’s skirmish off one second, one third and two fourth-place finishes in overnight action at Georgian Downs, but her trainer is expecting a little sharper effort this weekend.
“She had a bit of a lung infection and we tried racing her, but she tailed off so we treated her,” explains the veteran horseman. “She trained good today, so I am hoping that she is better for it.”
Bax bred the daughter of Duke Of York and Lady Madonna, and he shares ownership on the filly with Goin To The Show Stable of Peterborough, John Houston of Cobourg and Lewis Palmer of Oshawa. Duke Of York raced out of the Bax stable through his $925,921 career, and the trainer says Parkhill Fantasia possesses the same attitude as her illustrious sire.
“She’s got that Duke Of York fight in her,” he explains. “She’s got that want — if you can control it they’re great, if you can’t you’re in trouble.”
Among the fillies that Lunar Stream and Parkhill Fantasia will battle in Sunday’s third race are four from the Wayne Henry stable. Daylon Mystique (Post 9) was also a contender in the Gold Series season opener, finishing third in her elimination and seventh in the final, while stablemates Girlsruleboyslose (Post 1), Napanee Seelster (Post 4) and Youre Still Theone (Post 6) will make their provincial debut on Sunday.
Butana and Friendly Amigo also head to the Trillium via the Gold Series. Butana captured her May 10 Gold Elimination for owner and trainer Charalambos Christoforou of Campbellville, but made a costly break in the final and finished ninth. Butana will be looking for her third win of the season from Post 3 in Sunday’s third race. Friendly Amigo finished fifth in her elimination, behind Butana and Lunar Stream, then followed Lunar Stream to a fourth-place finish in the May 17 overnight at Mohawk Racetrack. The Blair Burgess trainee will make her third start of the season from Post 2.
Racing gets under way at 7 p.m. this Sunday at Windsor Raceway, with the talented three-year-old trotting fillies stepping into the spotlight in Race 3.
To view Sunday's entries, click here.
(OSS)