FRASERVILLE, ON — With just two Grassroots events remaining in the regular season, competition among the three-year-old trotting fillies for a post season berth is heating up. The fillies head to Kawartha Downs on Saturday night and among those looking for a late season leap up the standings is Early Closer, bred and owned by Joyce and Dr. Angus McLean of Hastings.
The Earl daughter competed in the Grassroots season opener at Quinte Raceway and the Aug. 16 event at Elmira Raceway, accumulating just five points from a fifth-place finish at Elmira. She needs a solid result at Kawartha Downs on Saturday night and another in the final event at Georgian Downs on Oct. 12 in order to advance into the post season, but the recent addition of trotting hopples and the return of trainer Jim Raymer have given the McLean’s hope that Early Closer can get the job done.
“She is improving greatly,” says Joyce McLean. “She was doing very well at the first of the year, but she went backwards for some reason. She’s coming on again now.”
Early Closer boasts an impressive personal best of 1:57.2, taken at Mohawk Racetrack in early June, and was a handy winner in a division of the Flamboro Breeders Stake on July 5 but she has struggled with breaks since tackling the Gold Series fillies in mid July.
When Raymer returned to Ontario from his current base in New Jersey at the beginning of September, the McLean’s moved Early Closer back to their Hastings farm. Raymer resumed conditioning duties and decided to try the filly with a set of trotting hopples. She qualified at Kawartha on Sept. 14 and stormed around the five-eighths mile oval in 2:00, 30 lengths ahead of the competition. One week later Raymer drove her to an off the board finish against older horses at Georgian Downs in a solid 2:01.1.
“We’ve got her here at the farm now, she likes being here. And she rather likes Jim. She remembers him I guess,” says McLean. “She has the speed, and hopefully we have her straightened out, so we’ll wish her well.”
Early Closer and Raymer will start from Post 8 in the first race on Saturday and Kawartha’s handicappers have pegged her as one of the favourites in spite of the outside post. Among the fillies the pair will face is John Bax trainee Brylin Starlet from Post 7 and Seydah Solombre, owned by Solombre Farms of Cobourg, Timothy Cherwaiko of Mississauga and Ron and June McGuire of Toronto, who will start from Post 2.
Zola Smiger currently sits atop the Grassroots standings with 175 points, but the Seasoned Pleasure daughter owned and trained by Gerald Smith of Locust Hill will not make the trip to Fraserville, leaving the door open for the fillies breathing down her neck in the point race.
Kawartha Downs raises the curtain on its Saturday evening show at 7:30 pm and the three-year-old trotting fillies’ Grassroots battles go postward as Races 2, 3, 6, 7, and 9.