Oh Sweet Baby and My Whispering Eye celebrated maiden-breaking victories at Rideau Carleton Raceway on Friday evening, and they did their winning against some of the province’s leading ladies
A set of $40,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Series eliminations for two-year-old trotting fillies went postward as part of the 15-race program, with Oh Sweet Baby drawing first blood for Team Baillargeon.
Trained by Ben Baillargeon and driven by Mario Baillargeon, the daughter of Angus Hall-Galahads Damsel led the field through fractions of :29.2, :59.4 and 1:28.4 before cruising home in :30.3 en route to stopping the teletimer in 1:59.2. Runner-up Haphazard Gourmet (Gord Brown) was 4-1/2 lengths behind the winner, with Tropical Breeze AS (Peter Wallinder) grabbing the show dough.
Richard Berthiaume of Point-Aux-Trembles, QC owns the youngster, who was a $35,000 purchase at last year’s Harrisburg Sale. The filly now owns a 1-2-1 record from eight trips to the track, and she has banked $61,030 in the process.
My Whispering Eye was 0-for-9 going into her assignment for trainer James MacDonald, but she went home 1-for-10 thanks to her 1:58.4 triumph.
Anthony MacDonald mapped out the off-the-pace tally with the daughter of Here Comes Herbie-Mackies Magic, who was purchased for $6,000 at last year’s Canadian Open Yearling Sale. She drew off to win by 1-1/2 lengths in 1:58.4 over even-money favourite Extraordinaire (Wayne Henry). Pretty Crafty (Darren McCall) rounded out the top three finishers.
The 1:58.4 performance was a track record performance for two-year-old trotting fillies, lowering the former record of 1:59.1 which was shared by Canada Cool and Ipromisenottotell.
Terry Hunter of Troy, ON holds the ownership papers on the freshman, who has managed to stash away more than $92,000 in her career.
The top four finishers from each elimination plus one of the fifth-place finishers will advance to next Friday’s final. Here’s how they’ll line up on the starting gate:
$130,000 O.S.S. Gold Series Final
1. Pretty Crafty
2. Haphazard Gourmet
3. Tropical Breeze AS
4. Quantum Victoria
5. My Whispering Eye
6. Scorpius
7. South Bay
8. Extraordinaire
9. Oh Sweet Baby
To view Friday’s results, click here.