INNISFIL, ON — Georgian Downs wraps up an outstanding season of Ontario Sires Stakes action this Saturday with six Grassroots divisions for the record setting three-year-old pacing fillies.
Sitting in a tie for second in the division point race, Missys Fame is already guaranteed a spot in the Grassroots Semifinal, but owner and trainer John Bosworth would like the Apaches Fame daughter to have a solid race under her belt before heading to Flamboro Downs on Oct. 26.
“She’s been racing pretty well really, but this it the last of the Series. We go into the Semifinal next week at Flamboro and the Final is Nov. 2,” says the Newmarket resident. “Hopefully she’ll do well down there. She likes the half-mile track, she gets around the turns pretty well.”
Through four regular season starts Missys Fame boasts a record of two wins and two seconds for a total of 150 points. She heads into Saturday’s seventh race off a win in the Sept. 28 Grassroots event at Clinton Raceway and will take aim on a second straight victory from Post 6, which Bosworth does not expect to cramp the filly’s preferred style of racing.
“She leaves out of there like a bullet. She likes to be on top,” he explains. “I don’t like to race them in front all the time, I like to see them race from behind too, but she sulks a little bit when horses get around her.”
With regular driver Ross Battin committed to drive in Ontario Sires Stakes action in Windsor on Saturday, Jim McClure will pick up the reins on Missys Fame for the first time, but Bosworth does not anticipate any difficulties with the driver change either.
“Jim hasn’t driven her before, but she isn’t that difficult to drive,” says the 80-year-old horseman. “He’ll give her a good steer.”
Missys Fame was a contender in the Grassroots program as a two-year-old, just missing the cut off for the post season, and Bosworth attributes at least part of her success this season to a progressive feeding program developed at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis.
“She wasn’t 100 per cent as a two-year-old, she was tying up. We went down to (University of) Guelph and they had no answers so our vet, Dr. Potter, called down to the University of Minnesota and they sent me a lot of literature and it made sense,” says Bosworth. “It’s a complete feed, in pellet form, and we put all the horses on it; they’ve never looked better and they’re all racing well.”
To add to her record of four wins, three seconds and one third through 13 starts, Missys Fame will have to best a field of eight including Gold Series regular A And Gs Dream from Post 1.
Among the other top fillies Georgian Downs fans will have their eyes trained on are Clinton Raceway track record holder Feathery Fame from Post 4 in Race 8 and Gold Elimination winner Armbro Athletic from Post 5 in the first race.
Grassroots excitement takes flight at 7:30 pm on Saturday at Georgian Downs, with the three-year-old pacing fillies also featured in Races 3, 5, 7, 8, and 9.