It has been six years since Ken Sucee raced a horse in the Ontario Sires Stakes program, so the Oshawa, Ont. resident was delighted when two-year-old trotting filly Portofino won her last Grassroots start and qualified for Thursday’s (Sept. 30) Semi-Final at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
“I am looking forward to just racing,” said Sucee. “I hope we get to the final, but I haven’t been in the Ontario Sires Stakes in a number of years and I am having a lot of fun. It’s a great program.”
Portofino will make her bid for a Grassroots Championship berth from post four in the second two-year-old trotting filly Semi-Final on Thursday, with regular reinsman Paul MacDonell at the lines. MacDonell has been in the race bike for all five of the Wheeling N Dealin daughter’s appearances, including two late August qualifiers, a September 7 overnight and the last two Grassroots legs.
In the September 13 Grassroots leg at Woodbine Mohawk Park, the pair was second by a neck to Gold Series regulars Needa Little Magic and Doug McNair, and in the September 21 test at Flamboro Downs, they cruised to a 4-1/4-length win, stopping the teletimer at 1:59.4.
“Paul (MacDonell) said she was well in hand, and she was perfect,” said Sucee, who trains the filly for 2790884 Ontario Inc. of Oshawa, Ont. “Paul has done a wonderful job in managing her, bringing her along right from the qualifiers. I’ve known Paul for 30 years and he gets the credit for keeping her well within herself and looking after her.”
Portofino was a $35,000 purchase out of last fall’s Black Book Yearling Sale and if you had asked Sucee in November whether he would be harnessing the filly in the 2021 Ontario Sires Stakes post season, the answer would have been a resounding, ‘No.’
“No I did not think she would be, she was very obstinate, she was very difficult to break. She’s her own girl. It took a long time to get her to realise what she was going to have to do,” said the horseman. “She didn’t show me anything until January, but after January I knew we had something very special.”
Trainer Rene Bourassa’s early days with pacing filly Dewitt For Josie were also rough ones. The Sportswriter daughter kicked the Fergus, Ont. resident in the ribs the second day in harness and laid him up for several weeks.
“That was kind of my fault, I gave her too much loose (rein) and she cow-kicked on the side,” said Bourassa. “That was the start, but she’s been a very nice horse to work with.”
Dewitt For Josie heads into the two-year-old pacing filly Semi-Finals at the top of the standings with 158 points earned through three wins and one fourth in four Grassroots starts. The long-legged filly also recorded a third-place result in the second Gold leg, finished fourth in her Battle Of The Belles elimination at Grand River Raceway and sixth in the August 2 final.
“She’s really a handy horse. She’s really good gaited. Yesterday (Monday), I trained her in 2:14, back half in 1:05, free-legged, and she was very good at it,” said Bourassa. “Sportswriters, especially, they are very mature horses and good gaited horses, that’s what I find. I’ve had a few over the years and they are a really good gaited horse.”
Bourassa trains Dewitt For Josie for Gilles Caouette of Sudbury, Ont., who offered up $38,000 for the full-sister to 2016 two-year-old pacing filly Super Final champion Yaris Bayama at last fall’s Ontario Select Yearling Sale. Regular driver Louis-Philippe Roy will be in the race bike for Thursday’s Semi-Final bid, lining the filly up at post five in the first $20,000 split.
The two-year-old pacing fillies will square off in Races 4 and 10, while the two-year-old trotting fillies wage their Semi-Final battles in Races 1 and 8. The two-year-old pacing colts compete in Races 7 and 11, and the two-year-old trotting colts go postward in Races 2 and 6. The top five finishers from each $20,000 Semi-Final will return to Woodbine Mohawk Park on Saturday, Oct. 9 for their respective $60,000 Grassroots Championship.
Thursday night’s program gets under way at 7 p.m. and fans can download a program and watch the live stream on the Woodbine Mohawk Park website.
To view Thursday's harness racing entries, click on the following link: Thursday Entries - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
(OSS)