Ontario’s talented two-year-old trotting fillies will celebrate Labour Day Monday at Dresden Raceway with seven $24,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots divisions, and Dan Creighton is hoping his Jekyll and Hyde-like trainee Edens Cover Girl can match the winning effort she
delivered in her provincial debut.
A 2:04 victor at Flamboro Downs in the August 13 Grassroots event, her first lifetime start, Edens Cover Girl is the model of decorum on the racetrack, but poses a real danger to the unwary when she is not working.
“She is definitely a filly with a lot of character. She’s got some tricks to her,” says Creighton, adding that kicking and biting are both in the filly’s repertoire. “Pam Young looks after her and she gets along great with her, they trust each other. As long as we leave them alone they are fine, it’s when you get other people involved that she gets fussy.
“She’s definitely got some attitude, but she’s beautiful to drive,” adds the Strathroy, ON resident. “To drive, she’s pretty mature.”
Creighton shares ownership on the filly with his partners in the Danterra Racing Stable of Strathroy, breeder Edenridge Farms of Charlottesville, VA and Chasin The Dream Stable of Oil Springs, ON. Chasin The Dream Stable is comprised of Petrollia, ON resident Randy Clark, Dale Hunter of London, ON and Dick Hunter of Oil Springs, and Creighton expects the Hunter family will be out in force to watch the feisty filly at Dresden on Monday.
“They really support her well. They come out to the racetrack; all the family comes,” says the trainer. “It’s nice for Dick to have all his kids and grandkids around.”
Edens Cover Girl heads into Monday’s test off a fifth-place finish at Hiawatha Horse Park on August 28, but Creighton says the daughter of Ken Warkentin and $289,210 winner Princess Peri was hampered by a respiratory issue last weekend that should be cleared up by Monday. Regular reinsman Trevor Ritchie will steer the filly from Post 2 in the first race and Creighton is expecting a solid result from the pair.
“She gets around a half great. I wish all the ones I have would get around a half as good as she does,” notes the horseman. “She’s good mannered, good at the gate, we just have to see how fast she is.
“I have confidence in her, and Trevor knows her well,” he adds.
In addition to the remaining Grassroots events, Edens Cover Girl is eligible to participate in the 2010 Virginia Day of Champions at Colonial Downs in New Kent, VA, and Creighton is hoping that the filly continues to develop her skills through the fall and can make the trip south in late October.
“Because she was born in Virginia there is a stake race at Colonial Downs that we’re aiming for,” says Creighton. “There are not many paid into it, and it goes for $40,000 or so.”
Edens Cover Girl has accumulated $12,255 through her first two starts, and will be aiming to add to that total on Monday. The two-year-old trotting fillies open Dresden Raceway’s Labour Day program at 1 p.m., and also compete in Races 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11.
To view Monday's entries, click here.
(OSS)