Windsong Filou will start from Post 8 in Saturday’s $170,000 Gold Final at Mohawk Racetrack, and trainer Carl Jamieson figures the outside post will prevent the filly from defending her Gold Final title in the hotly competitive three-year-old pacing filly division
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“If they leave hard out of the eight-hole, it’s a long way to go, it uses them up,” says the Princeton resident, who shares ownership on Windsong Filou with Dr. Michael Wilson of Rockwood, Thomas Kyron of Toronto and Lobro Stables of London. “And they’ll likely go in 1:51 or better.”
With only nine fillies entered in the third Gold event of the season, eliminations slated for last weekend were not necessary and all of the fillies advanced directly to Saturday’s final. Windsong Filou heads into the lucrative $170,000 final off a disappointing eighth-place finish in the July 25 Canadian Breeders Championship Final, which followed her victories in the July 17 Canadian Breeders Eliminations at Mohawk, and the July 11 Gold Final at Georgian Downs.
In preparation for Saturday’s skirmish, Jamieson gave the filly a sharp workout on the weekend and will follow it up with a slower outing on Wednesday.
“She’ll get trained tomorrow (Wednesday) a couple of slow trips. I trained her pretty good on the weekend because she wasn’t in (to race),” explains the veteran horseman. “When they’re going in 1:50 or 1:51 they have to be ready. You can’t be giving them two weeks off and expecting them to keep up.”
Jamieson adds that much of the Astreos daughter’s day to day work is done in a setting very different from the racetrack — the equine swimming pool at his Princeton farm.
“We swim her a lot, she’s in the pool a lot,” he explains. “Every horse is different, but she seems to be racing good off it.”
All the swimming has also had a positive effect on the dainty filly’s appetite. The formerly picky eater has been cleaning her feed tub recently, giving her the energy required to compete week in and week out against the toughest fillies in the province.
“She was a little picky, but she’s been eating better this last while,” notes Jamieson. “Like the saying, if they eat hearty, they race hearty.”
Jamieson and driver Keith Oliver will be hoping for a hearty effort from Windsong Filou in the sixth race on Saturday, the first of two Gold Finals on the menu at Mohawk.
The three-year-old trotting colts will also square off in Gold Final action, with reigning champion Equity looking to extend his unbeaten streak to eight from Post 1 in the eighth race.
Chris Christoforou of Campbellville trains Equity, and shares ownership on the son of Kadabra and Earl Of My Dreams with Banjo Farms of Toronto. Through 11 starts this season Equity has accumulated nine wins and one second for earnings of $256,320. The gelding has not been beaten to the wire since the May 25 Gold Final at Mohawk won by I Wont Dance.
Milton resident Randy Waples engineered the gelding’s 1:55.1 victory in last week’s elimination and will be back in the race bike on Saturday, keeping an eye out for the other elimination winner, Structure Fire, from Post 4.
Saturday’s outstanding program of racing begins at 7:30 p.m., with the three-year-old pacing fillies lighting up the Mohawk Racetrack surface in Race 6 and the three-year-old trotting colts duelling in Race 8.
To view Saturday's harness racing entries, click here.
(OSS)