When Tell Me Why scored a 1:57.3 win at Rideau Carleton Raceway earlier this month, the three-year-old pacing filly earned herself a berth in Sunday evening’s Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots event.
The win was the filly’s second in four starts this season and, when added to second and third-place finishes in her other two starts, put owner Mario Micucci in the black less than two months after he acquired the daughter of Jeremes Jet and Alliwannabe. The Ottawa resident purchased Tell Me Why from his son Carlo, who bought the then two-year-old out of last August’s Summer Sizzler Sale for $8,000 and raced her through the fall at Rideau Carleton.
Tell Me Why earned just shy of $9,000 for Carlo Micucci in seven starts and has already banked $8,354 for his father after four sophomore outings.
“I bought it from him about two months ago or three months ago, I paid him $7,000,” says the elder Micucci with a chuckle. “I like to own a horse by myself.”
The long-time owner has been delighted with Tell Me Why’s early season results and is hoping she can hold her own against the Grassroots fillies in Sunday’s eighth race. The young pacer made two starts in the Grassroots program last season, before being consigned to the sale, logging one fifth and one seventh-place result.
“There are some nice ones in there, so I don’t know. Let’s hope we get a little money, but I’m not too sure,” he says. “That’s one sure thing with racing, you never know.”
Micucci entrusts Tell Me Why’s day-to-day care to trainer Ron MacDonald and regular reinsman Claude Larose will pilot the filly from Post 7 on Sunday. The pair face a tough field that includes two division winners from the Grassroots season opener at Hanover Raceway on June 9, including Sauble Claire, one of two fillies to shatter Hanover’s three-year-old pacing filly track record with a 1:54.4 performance.
“The race in Hanover last week, they went pretty fast, eh. Holy jeepers!” says Micucci. “So that’s why I don’t know, my little horse, if that one’s going to do. But hey, you don’t try, you never know.”
Micucci says Tell Me Why is a petite filly, but notes that her size has not served as a detriment to this point in her career. A half-sister to $335,267 winner Plumbing Princess — a multiple Grassroots winner in her three-year-old season — Tell Me Why will be looking to post a solid result against the province’s best in hopes of earning a trip to the third leg of the Grassroots Series at Grand River Raceway on July 27.
“She’s not big,” says Micucci frankly. “You never know, she might be good for a long time and she might not, but I can’t complain. She’s a very nice little filly.”
In addition to Sauble Claire, who will start from Post 5, Tell Me Why also faces division winner Village Bound from Post 4, and six other fillies who finished in the top five in their respective divisions at Hanover last weekend.
A total of 51 fillies will make the trip to Ottawa for Sunday’s test, battling for a total of $144,000 in six Grassroots divisions. The gifted three-year-old pacing fillies will be featured in Races 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 11 on Rideau Carleton Raceway’s Sunday evening program, kicking things off at 6:30 p.m.
To view Sunday's harness racing entries, click on the following link: Sunday Entries - Rideau Carleton Raceway.
(OSS)