REXDALE, ON — After competing in the Canadian Breeders Championship last weekend, Ontario’s top three-year-old pacing fillies return to Woodbine Racetrack on Friday night for their third Gold Series event.
Starring in the first of two Eliminations are the fillies who finished first and second in the Canadian Breeders Championship, Ascending (Post 5) and Armbro Athletic (Post 2). Armbro Athletic will be looking for her second Gold Elimination win of the season and trainer Bob Young feels the Village Jiffy daughter is heading into the race in top form after her runner-up finish last weekend.
“They did what we thought they’d do in the Final, go crazy on the front-end, and she paced a solid last half and was strong at the wire,” says Young. “So she’s coming into this race in good shape.”
After making just one start as a two-year-old, Armbro Athletic made her three-year-old debut much earlier than many of her Ontario Sires Stakes peers. She opened her 2003 season with a win in a Jan. 16 maiden event at Woodbine and quickly captured three more victories in her next four starts. After runner-up finishes in the Silver Reign and Princess Series’s, Young gave the filly a brief vacation and readied her for the June 16 Gold Eliminations at Woodbine where she posted a 1:54 victory.
In the June 23 Final Armbro Athletic finished off the board in seventh, but Young and his fellow owners The Whim Stable of Burlington, Brian Barton of Carlisle and Paul Gazzola of Guelph were pleased with her effort.
“It was a race I thought would be good for her. I thought it would loosen her up a little and show her she could pace a little faster than she had so far,” says Young. “And she paced faster than she’d ever gone in her life.”
In all of her OSS starts and the Canadian Breeders Elimination and Final, driver Roger Mayotte has used a come-from-behind strategy and Young says Woodbine fans can expect to see something similar on Friday.
“We’ve done both with her. When they weren’t going as fast we’d leave with her and she’d still pace home strong, but now that they’re starting to go more Roger and I think that she’s a one run filly,” explains the Guelph resident. “From the three-quarter pole home she’ll give you all she’s got. She’ll always get you something because she’s going ahead at the wire.”
If Armbro Athletic delivers a solid performance Friday and in next week’s Gold Final, Young adds that she may earn herself entry into the $400,000 Fan Hanover at Woodbine on Aug. 16 and 23.
Advancing to the Aug. 8 Final will be a slightly easier task for Armbro Athletic and the other five fillies in the first elimination as all but one will earn a ticket into the second round. Two of the seven fillies in the second race will be eliminated and among those hoping to secure a top five berth are reigning Gold Final champion Burning Point (Post 1) and last year’s top Ontario Sires Stakes money earner Northern Harmony (Post 7).
Woodbine Racetrack sends its first race to the post at 7:40 pm on Friday and spotlights the talented three-year-old pacing fillies in Races 1 and 2. The seven-eighths mile oval also hosts the three-year-old pacing colts in Gold Elimination action on Saturday and the three-year-old trotting fillies on Civic Holiday Monday.