Local fillies Keep In Dutch and Kor Mel Lil Lady return to Kawartha Downs this Saturday looking for a share of $120,000 in the third Gold Final on the freshman trotting filly schedule.
Keep In Dutch captured her elimination last weekend with a come from behind effort in 1:59.3 and will benefit from Post 2 in Saturday's Gold Final.
"We finally drew a good post with her," says co-owner Dave Boyle of Bowmanville. "Last week she didn't draw too bad, but we've been drawing outside posts with her quite a lot."
In last week's elimination round, the In Conchnito daughter started from Post 5, the closest to the inside rail she has been since her debut in the Bud Light Stake at Flamboro Downs on July 6. In her first two Gold Series appearances, Keep In Dutch started from Post 5 once, Post 8 twice and Post 10 once, and then landed Post 7 in her Robert Stewart Stakes division at Mohawk Racetrack on Aug. 10.
In spite of her poor luck in the post position draw, Keep In Dutch has recorded two wins, two seconds, one third and one fourth in seven starts, results which have not come as a surprise to Boyle and his fellow owners, trainer Bob McIntosh of Windsor and C S X Stables of Liberty Center, Ohio.
"She's shown potential right from when she was a weanling," explains Boyle. "And Bob does a great job getting them ready."
With regular reinsman Steve Condren committed elsewhere on Saturday, Don McElroy will step into the race bike behind Keep In Dutch, hoping to capitalize on the inside post and maintain the filly's second-place standing in the Gold Series point race.
While Keep In Dutch will be looking to take advantage of her inside post, trainer Bill Killen is hoping Kor Mel Lil Lady can still earn a share of the $120,000 Gold Final purse in spite of landing Post 7.
"I just want her to race good and hopefully get a piece of it, mainly for the points, and because it's our home track," says the Hampton resident, who shares ownership on the filly with his wife Brenda and daughter Melissa Killen. "This is where I wanted her to race good, and she did that last week. Hopefully she can get a piece again Saturday."
Like Boyle, Killen says Kor Mel Lil Lady demonstrated her ability long before she saw a racetrack. The former GM employee bred and raised the Malabar Maple daughter and says she always had style and smarts.
"She's always been fairly intelligent, right from when she was a foal. She'd test you, like a lot of them will, but when she didn't get away with it she didn't go back to it," recalls Killen. "She's a real nice fine-gaited horse and there were two or three people who watched her train down and said she had the style and the talent for the Gold."
Kor Mel Lil Lady is the first horse the Killen's have started in the Ontario Sires Stakes program and the whole family is enjoying the filly's early season success.
"My mother, she's got right involved," says Killen. "She's 80 and she's been going to Kawartha because it's close for her. She's been phoned already this week to see if she can go with us Saturday. It's been fun for all of us."
Regular reinsman Doug Brown opted for Paycheck Lavec in the Final, so Rick Webb will steer Kor Mel Lil Lady for the Killen family on Saturday.
The other two elimination winners, SOS Respect and Ill Wait For You, will start from Posts 1 and 9 in the seventh race, while two-time Gold Final champion Cumin First gets Post 3.
Kawartha Downs' fans will also be treated to Gold Consolation action from the two-year-old trotting fillies in Race 3. Post time at the Fraserville oval this Saturday, Aug. 23 is 7 p.m.
To view Saturday's entries, click here.
(OSS)