Ontario's talented three-year-old pacing fillies are headed to Flamboro Downs on Thursday, September 18 for their second last regular season Grassroots event, and the competition will be fierce as the distaffers battle for the right to return to the Dundas oval in October.
With 50 points earned through her first two Grassroots starts, A New Scentsation is tangled up with nine other fillies at the bottom of the leader board. Only the top 16 point earners will return to Flamboro Downs for the October 16 Grassroots Semifinal, and owner Joan Aspden is hoping the Mach Three daughter is among them.
"I think this is the one that, hopefully, is going to do well," says the Hamilton resident, who shares ownership on A New Scentsation with trainer Randy Boyce of Markdale. "She tries, that's the main thing. She tries to improve each time."
Through 14 starts this season, A New Scentsation has recorded four wins, four seconds and one third for earnings of $34,420. The filly made her provincial debut in the August 2 Grassroots event at Woodstock Raceway, cruising home in second over an off track, and then picked up another set of runner-up points at Sudbury Downs on August 30.
She heads into Thursday's race off a September 9 overnight event at Grand River Raceway, where she overcame Post 7 to finish third.
Bruce Richardson has piloted A New Scentsation to all four of her wins, and the Arthur resident will be back in the race bike in Thursday's first race, sending the filly after another deposit of Grassroots points from Post 5.
The pair faces a tough field in the $20,000 skirmish, including former Grassroots winners Random Dreamer and Slaley from Posts 1 and 2.
Aspden is looking forward to catching the filly in action at Flamboro Downs and is confident trainer Boyce will have the youngster in top form for the last two regular season events. She and her husband Harold Aspden have had horses with Boyce for over three decades, and she has complete confidence in his knowledge and abilities.
"Randy is a great trainer," says Aspden. "To be with us this long, that's something you don't see very much."
While Aspden defers to Boyce when it comes to decisions about the training and care of their horses, there is one aspect of buying and racing yearlings that she has no intention of handing over.
"We get the yearling sale catalogue and pick out certain horses, and Randy and his son look at them and decide which one is the best, then we try for that one," explains the longtime owner. "I get to pick, and I get to bid. That's the best part, and when you get them it's even better.
"The yearling sales are so exciting. I love going to them, because I get to bid," she adds with a soft laugh.
At the Canadian Open Yearling Sale on Sunday afternoon, Aspden bid $14,000 for another daughter of Mach Three that she hopes will fill A New Scentsation's shoes in next year's Grassroots program.
With a strong effort in Thursday's contest, A New Scentsation can not only top up her Grassroots points, but make a deposit against the purchase price of her new stablemate.
The filly will deliver her best effort in the first of five $20,000 Grassroots divisions, which rolls in behind the starting gate at 6 p.m. The three-year-old pacing fillies will also be featured in Races 3, 6, 9, and 11 on Flamboro Downs' Thursday evening program.
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To view Thursday's entries, click here.