Despite setting track and Canadian records while reeling off four wins in a row prior to this weekend’s Canadian Breeders Championship finals at Mohawk Racetrack, three-year-old trotting filly Cross Of Lorraine has trainer and part-owner Carl Jamieson walking on eggshells
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While Jamieson notes the beautifully gaited daughter of Angus Hall-Katya Hanover is in top form and can absolutely beat last year’s divisional standout and CBC favourite Poof Shes Gone or any of the other top Ontario sired fillies in the bunch, she has not yet overcome a few issues that cut her season short as a two-year-old.
Cross Of Lorraine went 0-for-3 at two before Jamieson stopped with the filly due to cracks in her knees. She was turned out in the summer and roamed the fields for part of the winter in Florida, but when Jamieson x-rayed her in February this year, she showed no signs of improvement. “Usually they should be healed by that time,” he noted.
“I x-rayed her out here about a month or so ago and they didn’t look much better,” explained Jamieson, who has employed three techniques to treat her cracks including the use of an oxygen chamber, magnetic therapy and a swimming pool.
Despite her issues, Cross Of Lorraine has won six of her eight starts this year banking $123,600. Most recently, she won a conditioned event on June 14 at Mohawk and then lowered the Georgian Downs track record and Canadian record on a five-eights mile track in both her Ontario Sires Stakes Gold elimination and final at the beginning of July. She wired the fields winning by three lengths in 1:55.2 and then 1:54.2. Last Friday, she lowered her mark yet again winning the fastest of two CBC eliminations in 1:54 at Mohawk.
“I don’t know, some horses can live with a lot of things and the way she’s trotting I guess it’s not bothering her. She’s just a nice filly and gets out there and trots her heart out. She’s trotting sound but I keep telling everyone this could be her last race or the next race could be her last race or she might last all summer. It’s hard to tell what’s going to happen.”
That uncertainty caused Jamieson to cease payments to the Elegantimage and other stakes of that caliber. Instead, Cross Of Lorraine will focus on the Ontario Sires Stakes this season.
“I took her out of those races because when I x-rayed her I didn’t think she’d stay sound this long and she’s proven me wrong but almost anybody in their right mind would not pay all those stake payments if they had x-rayed her knees. Anyways, Sires Stakes payments were made and if she is just good enough for the Sires Stakes I guess that’s good enough too. If she lasts all year she’ll make lots of money and if she doesn’t, well she’s out of the red now anyways and she’ll have great broodmare potential.”
Cross Of Lorraine will start from Post 4 in Saturday’s $158,673 Canadian Breeders Championship (Race 3, post time 8:12 p.m.) for Jamieson and his partners Thomas Kyron of Toronto and Hope Johnson of London, ON. Jody Jamieson will drive the filly, who is the 5-2 second choice in the morning line.
“She looks like she’s just going to be as good as she was last week and the week before and the week before that,” Jamieson told Trot Insider. “I think she can go more if she has to go there. She’s very smart, if she’s on the front she doesn’t try to run off and tire herself. She waits and watches and when they come she’ll dig in. She gives you all she’s got anyway. How much more can she go? Nobody really knows but there’s more in the tank.”
To view the entries for Saturday’s stakes-filled program, click here.