You can sense a certain sadness in the voice of trainer John Pentland when he talks about the racing career of $907,000 winner Luck Of Michelle winding down in a few months.
"We'll race her until about the end of the year," said Pentland. "I suppose there is a certain amount of regret that she'll retire to the broodmare ranks without getting to a million dollars for her career."
The four-year-old Camluck mare is scheduled to start from Post 6 in Monday afternoon's Mares Preferred Pace at Western Fair Raceway.
"For what she was as a multiple stakes-winning two-year-old our thinking was she had a great chance to reach the million mark in earnings," he added. "At three she wasn't as dominant and this year she's been through two bouts of virus and had to overcome an ongoing sore foot challenge."
On October 13 at Western Fair, Luck Of Michelle showed the form of her former glory when she won the top weekly distaff event in London . Leaving from Post 7, she landed in the pocket and then split mares in late stretch to win a five-horse photo.
"She's better now than she was in the Summer or at any time earlier this year," said Pentland. "That was a great drive from Trevor Henry that got her the win. She'll need to be at her best Monday since that's a really nice group she's facing again."
Pentland also disclosed that Luck Of Michelle was bred to Dragon Again under the embryo transplant plan, however the surrogate mare subsequently miscarried twice.
"We've had a nice two-year-old filly by Dragon Again racing for us this year named Backstreet Sweetie," he added. "The plan is to breed Luck Of Michelle to him again when her racing days are done. We are not going to keep her racing just to get to the million dollar mark."
Worthen Returns To Ontario
Shawn Worthen has returned to Ontario after more than fifteen years in Western Canada racing in Alberta and most recently in Saskatchewan at Yorkton and Marquis Downs.
"I left Ontario in 1992 after working for Bruce Clark at Flamboro Downs," the 37-year-old trainer says. "At one time I was up to a stable of ten horses in Alberta after going out on my own. It's great to be back in Ontario and a lot of it is due to the fact that my girlfriend is Bill O'Donnell's daughter," he adds.
On the Tuesday, October 28 card at Western Fair Worthen will send out claiming pacer Manwiththebigcigar.
"I trained him in 2:05 on Saturday and he has problems with his feet, so closer to race time I'll decide if I'll change him from the glued-on aluminum shoes to steel in front," Worthen says. "He's a nice horse that's won nine times for me this year. He was racing great at Marquis Downs and I hope he'll carry his form into Ontario."
Stakes Galore
This Friday night will be a busy one for stakes racing action at Western Fair. Joining the second round of the Middlesex County Series will be the Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Series eliminations for both the filly and colt pacers in the two year old divisions.
All four finals of the Middlesex County Series and both of the OSS Gold finals will be staged on one big card at Western Fair on Saturday, November 8.
Through December post time at Western Fair each Monday and Tuesday is 3:05 p.m. with Friday and Saturday cards turning to the gate at 7:05 p.m.
(Western Fair Raceway)
To view Monday's entries, click here.