ELMIRA, ON — Just eight days after their season opening Gold Final, the two-year-old trotting fillies are back in action this Monday evening at Elmira Raceway.
Reigning Gold Final winner Incredible Iam will defend her title from Post 6 in the first race and, like her peers, will have to deliver a top two performance on Monday to earn a ticket back for the Gold Final on Aug. 4. Among the other fillies hoping to secure a berth in the $130,000 Final is Coquette Girl, owned by Elmira residents George Zirnis and Tom Cousineau, who will start from the trailing Post 8 in Race 2.
“I don’t like the post, but what can you do,” says Zirnis, who trains and drives the filly. “I’ve schooled her a couple of times here at Elmira so she knows the track and she gets around it pretty good. I hope I can get in the first two.”
Coquette Girl narrowly missed the July 20 Gold Final at Rideau Carleton Raceway, finishing third in her elimination when a top two performance was required.
“In Ottawa I raced her kind of conservative and finished third and didn’t get to go to the Final,” says Zirnis. “It kind of puts you under the gun. You don’t want to race a two-year-old filly too tough, but if you don’t race them a little bit tough you don’t make the Final. If you want to play with the big boys, you’ve got to do the big things.”
Zirnis and Cousineau acquired the Incredible Abe daughter at last fall’s Forest City Yearling Sale for just $8,000. Although the veteran trotting conditioner was not impressed with the filly through her early lessons, when he started to ask for speed Coquette Girl finally began to exhibit some potential.
“She was a little pacey for most of the winter, but once she started training she just kept coming and coming. By the time June rolled around she was the best one I had. She’s just that kind of filly,” he says. “And I think she will keep getting better. She’s a great big filly and she’s got a good attitude.”
Coquette Girl will face seven other fillies in the second race, including Beautiful Day who finished fourth in the July 20 Gold Final. Two other fillies who failed to make the Ottawa Final, a pair making the leap up from the Grassroots level and two newcomers to provincial action round out the field of eight.
Elmira Raceway fans will also have their eye on Sno Doubt About It, who was the runner-up at Rideau Carleton after laying down lightning fast early fractions. Prior to the Gold Final the Balanced Image filly had recorded two straight wins in times more than two seconds faster than her peers. Sno Doubt About It will start from Post 5 in the ninth race on Monday.
Elmira Raceway’s first race goes to post at 7:30 pm on Monday, with the talented two-year-old trotting fillies taking centre stage in Races 1, 2, 6 and 9.