Favoured at 8-5 on the morning line, Mike Weller-trainee Aint Three Ok will start from post four in the $107,800 Battle of the Belles, which will be contested at Grand River Raceway on Industry Day, Monday, August 1.
“I got this filly from my friend Steve Carter, who’s based down in Ohio,” Mike Weller said. “He has been a friend of mine for years, and he called me up and said ‘Hey, I got a couple of two-year-olds I want to send up to you if they make it.’ I went down there about a month or so ago and got her.”
Aint Three Ok, a two-year-old filly by Mach Three out of the Jennas Beach Boy mare Aint Given Up, is owned by breeder Thomas Cave, currently races under a lease by Chuck Grubbs.
“I don’t know why she’s leased,” Weller said. “The story Steve tells me that he went down to his mom’s in Kentucky to look at some horses, and there was a guy who had six yearlings out in a field, and they felt like there was a champion in the field, so they bought them all.”
The dam of Aint Three Ok, Aint Given Up certainly has champion DNA. Her full sister is Fool That I Am, the dam of millionaire Feel Like A Fool and speedy stakes winner Fool Me Once. Weller said that Aint Three Ok was no fool and a solid filly training down.
“She’s been perfect every time,” Weller said. “In fact, I just came off the track getting her ready for Monday, and she was absolutely perfect.”
In her career debut, Aint Three Ok finished sixth in a two-year-old event at Mohawk Racetrack, but did so coming home in :26.1.
“Steve had her racing in some baby races down in Delaware, Ohio, and he was telling me ‘we never gave her a head. We’ve kept her locked in, and when we trained her home and gave her a head she could go,” Weller said. “We knew she was good after she paced home first up against McNair’s filly [Action Majesty]. Our goal was to race her off the pace in her debut, have her finish strong, and she’ll be a good horse.”
Entering the Battle of the Belles eliminations off a sick scratch, Aint Three Ok traveled first over and won as the 7-5 favourite in 1:55.1.
“She has a little off-and-on sickness problem,” Weller said. “She has some sinus problems, allergies. We scratched her from a Gold division because she was too sick, and I said ‘If we race her sick once, we won’t have anything left for the rest of the season.’ We wanted to keep her good for the Belles.”
“She’s coming into this race as good as she could possibly be,” Weller also said. “She got a start under her belt [in the elimination], and she had three weeks off, and she showed me last week that she has a lot of guts.”
Aint Three Ok draws to the outside of Jeff Gillis trainee Bid Writer, who won a Belles elimination in 1:56.3, and to the inside of Gregg McNair's Loves Angel, who won a Belles elimination in 1:58.1.
“[Jeff] Gillis has a good horse in there,” Weller said. “She won pretty handily last week, but I like our chances going in. If everything goes our way, the fractions set up for her, she gets a little cover, and if we get a little luck, we got a big shot.”
Weller is looking for his first win in the “Belles” as he grows his stable. He recently moved his barn to Ontario after being stationed in the American Midwest.
“I had a bunch of horses racing at Hoosier one winter, and they were getting ready to close,” Weller said. I had a handful of 20 and 12 claimers and I thought ‘Man, I have to go somewhere to race.’ And my one friend, Jeff Brewer, said ‘Well, why don’t you go up to Canada? Your horses would fit at Mohawk and Woodbine. So I came up here, and I guess I fell in love. That’s the reason I stayed.
“It’s starting to work out up here, too, over the last year or so,” Weller also said. “I had some health issues a few years ago, and I lost my stable, but I got better and now things are getting better.”
Weller and the connections are looking forward to the Industry Day card, and will enjoy the festivities in person on Monday in Elora, Ont.
“Winning the Belles would be super,” Weller also said. “It’d be huge. Even my connections, Dave and Steve Carter, and Chuck Grubbs are coming up. They’re leaving Sunday to come see the race.”
$107,800 Battle of the Belles Final
(Post - Horse - Driver - Trainer - ML)
1. Stonebridge Sundae (M. Saftic / M. Barrieau) 8-1
2. Bid Writer (Ja. MacDonald / J. Gillis) 2-1
3. Village Jamie (J. Jamieson / E. Green) 3-1
4. Aint Three Ok (Trev. Henry / M. Weller) 8-5
5. The Joy Luck Club (Mi. Horner / Ma. Horner) 9-1
6. Loves Angel (D. McNair / G. McNair) 10-1
7. Miss Mittzie Bee (C. Christoforou / S. Arsenault) 7-1
8. Warrawee Speedy (E. Green / E. Green) 12-1
9. Shanghai Sugar (Tra. Henry / Tra. Henry) 5-1
To view the entries for Grand River's Industry Day card, click one of the following links:
(A Trot Insider Exclusive by Ray Cotolo)