Orillia, Ont. resident Michael Timpano is headed to Georgian Downs on Saturday night to cheer home a pair of two-year-old pacing fillies competing for a share of $192,000 in Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots purse money
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Grins Little Flirt will make her bid for a second Grassroots victory from Post 6 in the sixth race, while Reviere Seelster gets the advantageous Post 1 in the 10th race.
“We’re going to go. I just want to see what a horse looks like on the rail,” says Timpano with a laugh. “I’m going to take a picture before — I’m not worried about after the race, I just want it before the race — because I can’t remember the last time we had a post position like this.”
Timpano says Reviere Seelster’s inside post will be particularly beneficial, as the filly seems to be coming into her full potential after recovering from a bought of sickness that went through trainer Travis Bowman’s barn.
“We had some issues in the barn where a lot of them got sick, and she was one of the ones that got sick. I just finished getting off the phone with Georg Leber, my partner, and I was just telling him she’s looking like she’s starting to peak right now, so maybe it’s a good time,” says the owner. “She’s probably at the top of her game — whether she can compete with the best of them I don’t know, but she’s certainly hitting her best stride right now.
“I really think this Saturday we’ll find out more what kind of a horse she really is,” he adds.
Aaron Byron will steer the daughter of Modern Art and $248,092 winner Twin B Rosebud in her fourth lifetime start on Saturday. Under Bowman’s guidance, Reviere Seelster made her debut in the June 30 Grassroots season opener at Hiawatha Horse Park, finishing a fading seventh after leading for much of the mile. On July 16 the filly was a third-place finisher in an overnight event at Hanover Raceway, and she prepped for Saturday’s test with a third-place result at Georgian Downs on Aug. 6.
Timpano shares ownership of the filly with Leber’s ICR Racing, and says it was the Pefferlaw, Ont. resident’s theories about yearling auctions that resulted in Reviere Seelster’s arrival on his Orillia farm.
“My partner had this theory about buying a horse at the end of the sale, and she was at the end of the Forest City Sale,” explains Timpano. “Basically we bought her sight unseen; we bought her because she was one of the last ones in the sale. We had a friend look at her, and I think we paid $9,000 or something for her.
“She was training okay most of the winter, nothing special. I’m not trying to pretend she is a special horse yet, we’ll see,” he adds. “Hopefully Saturday she races good.”
Timpano is also hoping for a solid result from Grins Little Flirt, who kicked off her Grassroots campaign with a 1:55.4 victory at Hiawatha Horse Park. The daughter of Grinfromeartoear added a fifth-place result at Rideau Carleton Raceway on July 17 and currently sits atop the two-year-old pacing filly standings with 55 points.
Phelpston, Ont. resident Simon Pryjma conditions Grins Little Flirt for Timpano, breeder Tony Basile of Toronto and Stephan Pryjma of Whitby, Ont., and all four men have been pleasantly surprised with the filly’s efforts to date.
“She’s a really hyper horse. I remember when she was training down she was kind of hard to control, she wanted to always go 100,” recalls Timpano.
“And actually, when she was training down she wasn’t one of the horses that we were thinking was going to be a stake horse,” he continues. “She was just so flighty and hard to handle, she didn’t look like it, and then just a month or two before qualifiers she started to show some speed. She’s not a big filly, but she’s got real high speed.”
Timpano and his partners are hoping the filly can put that speed to work and earn a few more Grassroots points on Saturday, when she will face off against a field of seven that includes former Gold Series starter Palm Pilot at Post 1 and former Grassroots division winner Stonebridge Sassy from Post 2.
The filly’s peers will be aiming to knock her out of the top spot in Races 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11, with the first $24,000 Grassroots division parading onto the Georgian Downs oval at 7:25 p.m.
In addition to catching some of the province’s most gifted two-year-olds in action, Georgian Downs fans can enter the Ontario Sires Stakes program’s Win The Thrill contest in hopes of seeing themselves in the Grassroots winner’s circle next season.
Finalists from Saturday night’s designated Win The Thrill race will earn a Georgian Downs betting voucher and a shot at the Grand Prize draw, held during Grassroots Championship night at Mohawk Racetrack on Oct. 1. The lucky Grand Prize winner will be part of the Standardbred Breeders of Ontario Association’s (SBOA) New Owner Mentoring Program, learning the ropes of ownership alongside trainer Tony O’Sullivan and veteran owner Brian Webster.
More information about the Win The Thrill contest and the SBOA New Owners Mentoring program is available at www.ontariosiresstakes.com and www.standardbredbreeders.com. Ballots and details are available in the official Georgian Downs program.
To view Saturday's harness racing entries, click on the following link: Saturday Entries - Georgian Downs.
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