WINDSOR, ON — Windsor Raceway showcases Ontario’s top two-year-old trotting fillies and three-year-old pacing fillies in Grassroots and Trillium Series action on Sunday evening.
Five Grassroots divisions kick off the Ontario Sires Stakes parade with the freshman trotting fillies ready to pull out all the stops in an effort to secure a berth in the Oct. 24 Grassroots Semifinal. Among the fillies hoping to maintain a spot in the top 16 is Elouera, co-owned by Jean Brechkow of Amherstburg and Bobby Brown of Kingsville.
“It all hinges on the outcome of Sunday’s races,” says Brechkow, who bred the filly in partnership with Zorgwijk Stables Ltd. of Brantford. “We hope she makes it.”
With three Grassroots starts under her belt Elouera has accumulated 80 points from one win, one second and one fifth-place finish. In her only other start of the season the Wesgate Crown daughter posted a third-place result in a Trillium Series division at Georgian Downs on Oct. 4.
“She seems to have inherited her mother’s heart, her desire to pass other horses,” notes Brechkow, who owned the filly’s mother O Glory, a winner of $136,695 through five seasons. “She’s made some breaks, but then they all do.”
Through the winter trainer Garth Gordon of Guelph, Brechkow, Brown and James Walker of Whitby were not sure the filly would even see the racetrack at two, but this summer the pieces seemed to fall into place and Elouera captured her first lifetime start on Aug. 23 in a Grassroots division at Hanover Raceway.
�It was touch and go for a while, we weren’t sure she would make it at two,” says Brechkow, who named the filly after her childhood home in Australia. “And Garth thinks she will make a better three-year-old.”
Elouera will make her bid for a Semifinal berth from Post 4 in the eighth race on Sunday, the last of the five Grassroots contests, facing off against a field of nine that includes two-time Grassroots winner Cassatt from Post 2.
Two races after Elouera and her peers battle for Grassroots glory, the sophomore pacing fillies step to centre stage for a pair of Trillium Series divisions. Headlining the tenth race is Please Me Please, who will be looking for another strong finish from the advantageous Post 1.
“That looks like a pretty good draw. The rail is a pretty big advantage at Windsor,” says Al McIntosh, who shares ownership on the talented filly with trainer Bob McIntosh of La Salle and Dwight Stacey of Mitchell. “And she seems to be getting stronger every week.”
Please Me Please heads into the Trillium event off a runner-up finish in the Gold Final at Rideau Carleton Raceway on Oct. 5 and in her last four starts she has posted two wins and two seconds.
“Post position got her down there (Rideau Carleton),” notes McIntosh. “She ended up with a pretty tough trip to overcome the post position.”
The Leamington resident and his partners also bred the Camluck miss, who is a second generation member of their two decade old breeding program, a factor that McIntosh says adds to his enjoyment of the filly’s success.
“It even makes it more fun when you’ve made the breeding decisions and watched them grow up,” he explains. “And she’s matured into a nice smart mare, a pretty good looking mare.”
Windsor Raceway’s first race goes postward at 6:30 pm on Sunday, with the two-year-old trotting fillies starring in Races 2, 4, 6, 7, and 8 and the three-year-old pacing fillies taking over the spotlight in Races 10 and 12.