Push has come to shove for Ontario’s two-year-old pacing fillies as they wrap up their Grassroots regular season at Flamboro Downs on Wednesday afternoon
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Only 20 fillies will advance into the Sept. 23 Semifinal round, and Terry Hunter is hoping Wheels To Die For is among those that elbow their way up the point standings with a strong effort on Wednesday. The young pacer has made four starts in the Grassroots program, but it is only in her last two that Wheels To Die For has started to accumulate points, finishing fourth at Clinton Raceway on Aug. 21 and third at Hanover Raceway on Sept. 3.
“She’s coming along, she’s kind of a late bloomer,” says Hunter, who bred and owns the daughter of E Dees Cam and Arianna Jamar. “She’s starting to sort it out.”
Hunter would love to see the filly evolve into a successful racehorse; for as many sentimental reasons as practical ones. Wheels To Die For is the third foal — and the first to reach the racetrack — out of the very first standardbred he ever purchased.
“I didn’t know anything about racehorses,” admits the Cambridge, Ont. resident. “But I fell in love with the sport, and I fell in love with her mother.
“That’s how it all started, and it’s mushroomed out of control since then,” he adds with a chuckle.
Arianna Jamar never raced, but Hunter was fond enough of the mare that he decided to breed her and selected sire E Dees Cam after a visit to Winbak Farm in 2006. The mare produced two E Dees Cam offspring that Hunter describes as extra-large before Wheels To Die For arrived, and the breeder says he was optimistic about the filly’s prospects from the start.
“When she came along she was a little bit smaller, and really athletic looking,” he explains.
Wheels To Die For has made six starts so far, with just her third-place effort in Hanover to boast of, but Hunter is hoping she is on the right track, noting that a successful outing on Wednesday may extend the filly’s season even if she does not advance to the Semifinal round.
Oakville, Ont. resident Rick Zeron conditions Wheels To Die For and will send her after a share of the $24,000 Grassroots purse from Post 5 in Wednesday’s eighth race, the fourth of five freshman pacing filly divisions.
From Post 3 in the same race, St Lads Ditty will be hoping to earn more than a share of the purse.
“I go to Florida in the winter, and she hasn’t quite earned her way,” says trainer Paul Reid with a rueful chuckle.
Through six starts the Grinfromeartoear daughter has produced one win, in an overnight event at Hanover Raceway on Sept. 7, and has not accumulated any Grassroots points in two appearances. Reid says the filly has a Jekyll and Hyde personality on the racetrack and if the right St Lads Ditty shows up on Wednesday she might inch closer to a boarding pass on his southbound trailer.
“We were excited early on, she paced a mile in 1:57.3 her first start over here [Flamboro], then that was kind of where it ended,” says Reid, who trains the filly for Scott Maracle of Brantford, Ont.
“We’ll take a shot again this week in the Grassroots, but we’re kind of going start by start, kind of letting her make our mind up,” says the horseman. “I’m hoping that we’re on the right track.”
Flamboro Downs will roll out the red carpet for the two-year-old pacing fillies in Races 2, 4, 5, 8 and 9 on Wednesday’s program, which gets under way at 1 p.m.
In addition to watching the fillies duel in their last Grassroots event, Flamboro fans will have another opportunity to enter the Ontario Sires Stakes program’s Win The Thrill contest. By entering a ballot in the designated Win The Thrill race, fans could earn a Flamboro Downs betting voucher and a shot at the Grand Prize of one share in the Standardbred Breeders of Ontario Association’s (SBOA) New Owner Mentoring Program.The Grand Prize winner — who will be selected during the Oct. 1 Grassroots Championship at Mohawk Racetrack — will join eight other group members and owner-mentor Brian Webster of St. George Brant, Ont. in the purchase and ownership of an Ontario-sired yearling that will be trained by Cambridge, Ont. resident Tony O’Sullivan and pointed toward the 2012 or 2013 Ontario Sires Stakes program.
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 Flamboro Downs program.
To view Wednesday's harness racing entries, click on the following link: Wednesday Entries.
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