REXDALE, ON — A warm summer night and a field of lightning fast three-year-old pacing fillies resulted in the first record breaking mile of the Ontario Sires Stakes season on Monday evening at Woodbine Racetrack.
With $130,000 on the line the fillies wasted no time, roaring off the gate to a :26.2 opening quarter that saw elimination winner A And Gs Dream on top by one and three-quarter lengths. By the :54.2 half A And Gs Dream and driver Mike Saftic had increased their lead to five lengths, which they maintained through the 1:22.1 three-quarters. However, by the top of the stretch the lead had been shaved to three lengths and the field was closing in.
As the fillies straightened out for the long Woodbine stretch drive it was fan favourites Burning Point and Kevin Wallis who overtook the pacesetters and drew off to an awe inspiring four length victory in a track and Ontario Sires Stakes record 1:50.3.
“It was a real fast half. I did get a little concerned later,” said Wallis in the Woodbine winner’s circle. “That horse (A And Gs Dream) had a really big lead and I was hoping that she would come back to us a little bit.”
The win was Burning Point’s fourth straight and her tenth in 12 starts this season. The gifted Camluck daughter has missed the board just once and also captured the $100,000 Roses Are Red Final at Hazel Park on May 23.
Linda Wallis trains Burning Point for Cuzzins Stable of Boca Raton, FL, who acquired the filly in early April from breeder Fred Drouillard of Windsor after watching her strut her stuff at Florida’s Pompano Park. Wallis recommended the filly to Cuzzins partners Shelby Novick and Kenneth Solomon after driving her in a few races for Drouillard and said her talent was visible even in those early season efforts.
“Even before they purchased her I really thought she was something special,” he recalled. “She seems to have all of the qualities that you need to be (a great horse). I think a lot of her any ways.”
Burning Point’s 1:50.3 mile lowered the former Ontario Sires Stakes record of 1:51, set by Northern Cameo in 2001, and shaved one-fifth of a second off Woodbine’s track record for three-year-old pacing fillies shared by Only The Best (2000), Hawaiian Flash (2000) and In For Life (2000).
The sophomore pacing fillies will get their next opportunity to shatter speed records on Aug. 1 when they return to Woodbine Racetrack for Gold Series Eliminations. Prior to that some of the Gold regulars will head to Hanover Raceway on July 5 for their second Trillium Series event, while others prep for the July 18 Canadian Breeders Championship Eliminations at Woodbine.
Woodbine hosts its fourth Ontario Sires Stakes event next Monday, June 30, with the first Gold Series event of the season for the two-year-old pacing fillies.