SARNIA, ON — When the three-year-old trotting fillies arrive at Hiawatha Horse Park for Gold Series Eliminations on Saturday night Dan Clements is hoping that his top filly can finally prove herself in Ontario Sirs Stakes action.
Clements will start Corinas Mission in the sixth race and Broadway Gal in the eighth on Saturday night and while track handicappers have rated Corinas Mission as one of the favourites and Broadway Gal among the long shots, the Uxbridge resident believes time will prove that assessment incorrect.
“I think Broadway Gal is better than Corinas Mission by a mile,” says Clements. “She can absolutely fly this horse, I just need to get her to keep her mind about her.”
The Balanced Image daughter heads into Saturday’s event off a disappointing showing in the last Gold Series at Woodbine Racetrack and Clements hopes a return to form will come with the move to Hiawatha.
“For some reason she doesn’t like Woodbine,” says the trainer-driver. “She just totally went nuts. In the elimination I had no intention of leaving with her but she just went crazy and took a hold and we were to the quarter in :26.4. Then she made a break (in the Consolation) and she hurt herself from running, cut herself all up. I just chalked it up to a really loose Woodbine track.”
Clements and his father Norm, of Prince Lee Acres in Stouffville, were hoping to race Broadway Gal in the Hambletonian Oaks at The Meadowlands, but after the injury she suffered in the July 22 Consolation the filly had a brief vacation from the races instead.
“My main focus was the Hambletonian Oaks, but it didn’t work out,” he explains. “She had two weeks without doing anything and I trained her this morning and she was really solid so hopefully she is back to where she was before.”
With Broadway Gal out of the Hambletonian Oaks picture Clements decided to take Corinas Mission, who finished sixth in her July 27 elimination and failed to advance to the Final.
“There are no excuses, but she went mental in the front paddock and then there was a 10 minute delay and after about seven minutes she washed out,” says Clements of the filly’s New Jersey experience. “She trotted real well, (driver Ron) Pierce thought she was going to win it around the last turn, but she died at the end.”
Corinas Mission earned her trip to the Meadowlands with third and second-place finishes in the July 15 Elimination and July 22 Final at Woodbine Racetrack and Clements says she should move easily through the elimination round at Hiawatha as long as she stays trotting.
“She really matured this year, but for whatever reason she wouldn’t stay at it, she kept breaking,” he explains. “So I made the decision that I was just going to drive her myself and she’s been really good for me. I seem to know her a little better.”
Corinas Mission will start from Post 8 in the sixth race on Saturday and Broadway Gal gets Post 3 in the eighth race, lining up beside a filly who made a successful trip to The Meadowlands for the Hambletonian Oaks.
Pepi Lavec posted third-place finish in the $500,000 Oaks and trotted her own mile in a personal best 1:53.3. The Mr Lavec daughter finished second by three-quarters of a length in her Elimination and seems to be rounding back into the form that earned her the Ontario Sires Stakes division title at two.
Trainer John Bax’s Parkhill Stud Farm of Peterborough and Glengate Farms of Campbellville share ownership on Pepi Lavec, who will start from Post 2.
The three-year-old trotting fillies will aim for a top four finish in Races 6 and 8 on Saturday night. The top four finishers, plus one fifth-place finisher drawn by lot, will return to Sarnia on Aug. 17 for their third $130,00 Gold Final.
Racing excitement gets under way at Hiawatha Horse Park at 7:10 pm Saturday night and, in addition to the talented three-year-old trotting filly Gold Eliminations, fans will be treated to the $75,000 Slots Cup for aged pacers in Race 9.