WINDSOR, ON — Windsor Raceway fans will have a second opportunity catch some of Ontario’s top trotters this week when the three-year-old trotting fillies wrap up their Grassroots season at the five-eighths mile oval Wednesday evening.
Among the fillies fighting for a spot on the starting gate in the Oct. 26 Semifinal is Boom Boom Lavec, who sits just below the current point cut off. Unfortunately Randy Kerr, who trains and drives the Mr Lavec daughter for his partners Paul Bryant of Kingsville and Roy Holland of Essex, was less than optimistic about the filly’s chances of moving up the standings when he saw the results of the post position draw.
“They’re not good, she drew the eight-hole,” says the Amherstburg resident. “She’s been real bad on the draw since Day 1. In her first three starts she drew three seven-holes in a row at Western Fair and she has had two eights, one nine and one 10-hole in the Sires Stakes.”
In spite of her poor luck on draw day, Boom Boom Lavec has managed to score one second and two fourth-place finishes in three Grassroots starts for a total of 41 points. Her runner-up finish came in the Sept. 1 event at Dresden Raceway where she took advantage of the only inside post she has drawn in her Grassroots and Trillium campaign.
“She needs a trip. I had the eight-hole last week (Oct. 8) and I roughed her up a little bit and she didn’t finish very well,” notes Kerr. “She’s like any of them and needs a trip.”
In the Oct. 8 race Kerr and Boom Boom Lavec pressed the pace from the outside for much of the mile, so the veteran reinsman will be looking for a spot on the rail in Wednesday’s battle. Another runner-up finish could extend the filly’s season to the end of the month, otherwise Kerr and his partners will begin looking forward to her four-year-old season.
“She’s a nice filly. We bought her as a yearling, but her knees weren’t developed as a two-year-old so we quit with her, we didn’t even race her as a two-year-old,” he says. “And this year she’s only one won race, so she’s got all her young races to win yet.”
Among the fillies standing between Boom Boom Lavec and the post season is Northern Pixie, who currently sits third in the division standings and will benefit from Post 4 in the fourth race, and two-time Grassroots winner Oh Emma, who gets Post 3 in the $20,142 skirmish.
In the other divisions point leader, and last year’s Grassroots champion, Designable could have a tough time scoring her fourth stakes win of the season from Post 9 in the tenth race.
Windsor Raceway raises the curtain on its Wednesday evening program at 7:25 pm, with the three-year-old trotting fillies scheduled to take centre stage in Races 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10.