Some Gold With Those China Pearls?

Published: August 2, 2011 03:20 pm EDT

Post 1 worked perfectly for China Pearls in the Canadian Breeders Championship in July and trainer Carman Hie is hoping the rail continues to favour the three-year-old trotting filly as she heads back to Mohawk Racetrack for Gold elimination action on Thursday, August 4

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“It’s funny she’s got three in a row,” says Hie of the filly’s recent post positions. “But I chose the one, for the [Canadian Breeders Championship] final. And I think people were kind of surprised that I chose the one, but I think it suits her just fine.”

In the July 15 Canadian Breeders elimination, starting from Post 1, China Pearls and driver Randy Waples scored a 1:54.3 victory by a nose over Intense America. Hie notes that Milton resident Waples had eased up on the accelerator through the stretch and admitted in the post race interview that the choice almost cost the filly a victory. In the July 23 final the pair were back on the rail, by Hie’s design, and shook loose late to score a one and one-quarter length victory in 1:54.4.

“On the last turn I didn’t think she was going to get any money, she was boxed for her life,” recalls the trainer. “Then things broke open late, but I still didn’t think she could win from where she was you know, but boy did she ever do some trotting at the end of it.”

China Pearls recorded a :27.2 final quarter to capture the Canadian Breeders trophy for Hie’s partner in the Carman Hie Stable, Stewart Cockshutt of Rockwood, Blake Anthony of Millgrove, Peter Kloepfer of Harley and Ted Murrell of Sharon, Ont. The win boosted the filly’s record to three wins and four thirds in 10 starts for earnings of $136,998, in a career that did not get under way until the spring of this year.

Purchased for $13,000 at the 2009 Canadian Open Yearling Sale, the daughter of Kadabra and Pure Sable did not get down to serious lessons until the spring of her two-year-old year after she struggled to shake a bug through her first winter in Hie’s barn. However, once the veteran horseman got started with China Pearls, he was pretty confident he had a provincial stakes contender on his hands.

“She was a natural from Day 1,” says the Beamsville. Ont. resident. “She got sick in the fall of her yearling year, and she was actually kind of sick all winter so I didn’t do anything with her, it was spring before I got her broke and going. She showed well all summer long, but I’m too late for any racing; I trained her just to have her ready as a three-year-old.

“Now I never pay a horse into the Casual Breeze or the Elegantimage,” he adds. “But this filly felt a little different than some of them, you know, so I paid her into the Casual Breeze and the Elegantimage.”

In her first test against the best in North America, the June 3 Casual Breeze at Mohawk, China Pearls finished fourth behind division heavyweight Crys Dream. In her Elegantimage elimination China Pearls again closed well to finish third behind Crys Dream, however in the Elegantimage Final the filly just did not have her game face on, making a break behind the gate and finishing a well beaten ninth.

“She just, when she went to go to the gate she wouldn’t hit her stride, and it only takes a few seconds and it’s over with,” recalls Hie. “So that was disappointing.”In her 10 lifetime starts China Pearls has only made two errors, one inexplicable miscue in the Elegantimage, and one Hie takes full credit for in the season opening Gold Elimination at Western Fair Raceway on May 20.

“I misjudged the gate by a quarter of a mile, it was awful,” admits the trainer-driver with a rueful chuckle. “Trying to catch the gate I put her on the run, and then she finished third. She trotted a big mile. She was refunded and still got only beat four lengths, so you know that she trotted a big mile.”

Compounding the filly’s bad luck in her provincial debut, two of three third-place finishers advanced to the May 27 Gold final, but China Pearls drew the short straw and had to watch from the sidelines. Her second Gold Series outing saw her finish third in a July 2 Gold elimination at Georgian Downs and then fourth in the July 9 Gold Final, a race Hie calls very impressive.“She had some difficulties on the last turn with a breaking horse or she’d have been very close in the final of that,” says the horseman. “That was really an impressive race, the final, if you watched her closely. And then we went to the Canadian Breeders, and that was a good race. And then last week was fantastic.”

So long as China Pearls maintains her health and her consistent performance level, Hie and his partners intend to extend the filly’s racing career through her four-year-old season. All five partners are thoroughly enjoying her current success and eager to see how she develops in the future.

“I think she will — if nothing happens — I think she will be a useful racehorse,” says Hie of the strong-willed youngster.

“She’s a little feisty in the barn, but a mare’s got to be a little feisty to be good. Most of my mares, the better mares, have been a little feisty, so I don’t think that’s all bad, I think that’s good,” he adds. “And other than that she’s been a sound filly, and good gaited, and good mannered, and just a nice filly to have around.”

China Pearls will start from Post 1 in the sixth race on Thursday, with reigning Gold final champion Peach Martini starting from Post 6 and early season Gold final victor Lukes Sophie getting Post 5 in the single $40,000 Gold Elimination. With just 11 fillies contesting the Gold elimination round, only one filly will fail to advance to the August 11 Gold final. Post time for Mohawk Racetrack’s Thursday evening program is 7:10 p.m.

To view entries for Thursday's harness racing card, click on the following link: Thursday Entries - Mohawk Racetrack.

(OSS)

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