A trio of Trillium Series divisions are on the menu at Western Fair Raceway on Saturday evening, featuring 18 talented two-year-old trotting fillies.
William Hutchison trainee Fiesta will make her Trillium debut from Post 6 in the first $23,378 contest, and the Dorchester resident is hoping his Amigo Hall daughter can hold her own in the field of six.
“She’s what you call a late bloomer,” says Hutchison. “We had high hopes for her earlier, but she just took her time.”
Fiesta made her first public appearance in an Oct. 6 qualifier at Flamboro Downs, where she delivered a runner-up performance in 2:07.3. In her first pari-mutuel start the young trotter made a miscue heading for the quarter pole at the Dundas oval, but was able to recover quick enough to earn third-place honours.
“She really finished strong,” notes Hutchison, who conditions Fiesta for Charles Bain and Douglas Bain of Dorchester. “I don’t even know why she broke. Now that she’s with other horses more, she’s pretty solid, she keeps on trotting.”
Following the error, Fiesta was required to qualify a second time, and the filly toured around Flamboro Downs in 2:06.2 to post another runner-up result. Back in the non-winners of one race class at Flamboro on Monday, Nov. 17, regular reinsman Lyle MacArthur guided Fiesta to a solid second-place finish in a 2:02.4 mile.
“She’s a nice filly. I hope she goes on,” says Hutchison. “The owners’ plans for right now are to give her a few more races and then lay her off for a couple of months, get her ready for next year.”
Following Saturday’s outing Hutchison will hand over the reins to MacArthur and begin breaking Fiesta’s full sister, Taco.
“The people that own her just bought her full sister at Harrisburg. This filly is going to Lyle MacArthur and I am getting the sister,” explains the veteran horseman. “I’m getting a little too old to run the roads.”
Hutchison started training horses in 1961 and says he has been a fixture at the Dorchester Fairgrounds for three decades. While he has handled as many as four horses in the past, he now concentrates on teaching the finer points of racing to just one or two young horses each year.
“Two is fun, three gets to be work,” he says with a wry chuckle.
Among the fillies Fiesta and MacArthur will face in Saturday’s Trillium contest are Gold Series regulars Napanee Seelster and Daylon Mystique from Posts 1 and 5. Like Fiesta, the other three challengers are relative novices, and Hutchison is hoping his filly measures up favourably in spite of her outside post.
“I think she’ll be all right over there,” says the horseman. “We’ll give it a shot anyway.”
Post time for Western Fair Raceway’s Saturday evening program is 7:05 p.m., with the two-year-old trotting fillies engaging in their Trillium Series battles in Races 1, 2 and 6.
To view Saturday's entries, click here.
(OSS)