She hasn't raced since winning an OSS Gold final at Mohawk Racetrack on August 9 due to sickness, but trainer John Pentland told Trot Insider this afternoon that Chancey Lady is now "good and healthy."
The three-year-old Camluck bay -- a $903,000 earner for owner Niele Jiwan -- has drawn Post 6 in an OSS elimination (Race 6, 9:15 p.m.) on Mohawk Racetrack's stakes-filled Saturday night card. The second of the OSS Gold elims has been carded as Race 9 (10:18 p.m.)
Pentland told Trot Insider that Chancey Lady was sidelined due to a virus which had recently caused havoc in his barn -- something that many horsemen can attest to.
"It was the same virus that was going around everywhere here," Pentland explained, "and she got it really bad."
Chancey Lady had to scratched from the $179,300 SBOA final on August 22 at Mohawk, and was then forced to miss the Champlain Stakes, which was a dance set out on the filly's slate.
"It sucked, but she's better now," said Pentland. "It took her about ten days to get over the sickness. She might be a bit short, but she's good and healthy."
Pentland told Trot insider that is hard to tell if Chancey Lady is short because she's such an athletic horse.
"I'm not surprised she's picked to win," said Pentland, referring to Chancey Lady's 2-1 morning line odds from Post 2 with driver Mike Saftic.
"There are some good fillies in there, though," Pentland explained. "If Shake That Junk (PP3, J. Jamieson, 5-2) is anything like she was last time out at Flamboro [Downs] she'll be tough. Im Just Special (PP5, T. Tetrick, 3-1) tracked us the whole way in the OSS Gold final win in August, and we just beat her a length.
"It looks like it's going to be a good race. I'm just hoping the stock in my barn will be going forward in the next couple of months so we'll have some money to spend down at the sales."
The OSS elims are just two of the high quality stakes offered on Mohawk's card.
Race 2 and 4 will showcase top Open trotters in $50,000 elims for the Maple Leaf Trot. A pair of divisions of the Nassagaweya Stakes for two-year-old Open pacers has been programmed as Races 5 and 10. All those events, however, play second fiddle to the $1 million Canadian Trotting Classic, carded as Race 7.
To view replays of the Canadian Trotting Classic eliminations, click here.
Click here to view Mohawk's Saturday entries.
(photo courtesy New Image Media)