Two-year-old pacing filly Camille heads into Wednesday’s Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots event at Windsor Raceway off a 1:54.4 victory, her first in eight starts, and trainer Rodney Duford says things finally
seem to have clicked into place for the regally bred youngster.
“She raced good the other night. Both times at Mohawk she raced good,” says the horseman. “We knew she could go, it just seemed to take a little more time for her to come around than for most colts.”
A full sister to $1.4 million winner Chancey Lady, Camille made her racing debut at Hiawatha Horse Park on July 8 and finished 20 lengths behind the leaders in eighth. A second test at Dresden Raceway two weeks later saw the filly make an error at the three-quarter marker and finish fifth. Returning to Hiawatha on Aug. 5, Camille posted her first top three result, finishing third in a 1:58.3 mile.
On Aug. 11 the daughter of Camluck and 100 per cent producer Art Of Design made her first foray into the Grassroots program. In spite of interference the filly closed sharply to finish third, pacing her own mile in 2:01 over the Grand River Raceway oval. A pair of fourths in Grassroots action followed, on Aug. 28 at Kawartha Downs and Sept. 5 at Clinton Raceway.
With a three week gap before the next Grassroots event, Duford opted to try the filly over the seven-eighths mile oval at Mohawk Racetrack on Sept. 13 and Camille delivered an exceptional effort, sprinting home in :27.3 to finish second by a neck in 1:55.2.
One week later, driver Jason Brewer opted for a front end strategy and Camille made her first appearance in the winner’s circle after sailing home to a two and one-half length triumph in 1:54.4.
Brewer will be back in the race bike for Wednesday’s test, but may have a tough time replicating the result from the outside Post 9. It will be the second straight outer rail start in Grassroots action for Camille and Brewer, who were hampered by Post 7 at Clinton.
Camille currently sits just below the cut off for the post season, and Duford would love to see the filly earn a few more points on Wednesday and secure a berth in the Grassroots Semifinal, but the Essex, ON resident also has a long term view of the filly’s career.
“She’s a little angel, she has no quirks or nothing,” says the horseman. “She always trained like a nice mare, but she’s not very big.”
Larry Pollard of Harrow, ON bred and owns Camille, who has earned $19,580 through her first eight starts, which Duford notes is a far cry from the $337,840 her full-sister Chancey Lady earned from her first eight outings in 2007.
“She might get to be a decent mare, well I guess she’s decent now, but Chancey Lady was a great mare right off the bat,” he says. “We had the broodmare, so we always watched her.”
Camille will attempt to pad her bank roll and her point total in the sixth race on Wednesday, facing off against a field that includes six fillies who have already earned a Grassroots trophy this season.
Post time for Windsor Raceway’s Wednesday evening program is 7 p.m., and the two-year-old pacing fillies will command the spotlight in Races 2, 4, and 6.
To watch Camille’s previous Grassroots starts, click here.
To view Wednesday's entries, click here.
(OSS)