GLOUCESTER, ON — Nine talented two-year-old pacing fillies are headed back to Rideau Carleton Raceway on Sunday evening for their second shot at a $130,000 Ontario Sires Stakes purse.
When trainer Mark Steacy loads Sun N Sand up for the trip from his Lansdowne farm to the Ottawa oval he will be looking for a lucky charm to send along with the Astreos daughter, who will start from Post 7 in the Gold Final.
“I think that (Post 7) is tough for any pacer, especially when the field is pretty balanced,” says Steacy. “I think she is equal to anything in there, but I think she’ll need every break she can get. She’ll have to have some luck.”
Sun N Sand earned her coveted invitation to Sunday night’s event with a third-place effort in her elimination last week, finishing one and a quarter lengths behind winner Stonebridge Prima in the 1:57.4 mile. The outing was the filly’s second, she posted a win in the season opening Grassroots event at Flamboro Downs on July 17, and her owners were pleased to see her hold her own against the top tier fillies, especially Nepean resident Malcolm Man Son Hing.
“Malcolm’s very excited about it,” says Steacy, who shares ownership on Sun N Sand with Man Son Hing, David Reid of Glenburnie and George Judson of Athens. “He lives in Ottawa and he was in on horses with Joe Stutzman for a while, but with them racing in Toronto he had to watch them on television. This way he can be more hands on. He’s out in the paddock most nights.”
The partners had always thought Sun N Sand would be able to compete at the Gold level, but Steacy opted to tackle the top fillies when they were close to home in the second Gold event and give the filly a gentler start to her racing career.
“This filly trained down very good. She never did anything wrong, she’s a sound filly, a good gaited filly and she showed lots of speed all along the way,” says Steacy. “I was thinking probably Gold all along, but I didn’t want to start her against the Gold fillies on a half-mile track. That’s why I skipped the first one, and at the last minute I threw her in the Grassroots. She didn’t have to race too hard at Flamboro, and she didn’t have to race hard last week either.”
Steacy was attracted to the filly last fall when he saw her at breeder Peter Heffering’s farm in Port Perry. He had purchased Sun N Sand’s full sister Child From The Sea the year before and she had showed a great deal of potential before an injury cut short her two-year-old season. A modest $7,500 sale price at the Morrisburg, NJ Sale made Sun N Sand even more appealing.
“She’s a happy filly, she looks after herself pretty good, she enjoys what she does and she’s pretty clean going,” says the trainer-driver. “I’ll just be happy if she’s a really nice Gold filly.”
While Steacy drove Sun N Sand in both of her qualifiers, he opted to let Mark MacDonald handle the lines in last week’s elimination and the July 17 Grassroots event. Unfortunately MacDonald was committed to another filly for this weekend’s Final, but Steacy was able to secure the services of Randy Waples.
“Mark MacDonald really liked her, but he was already committed to the other filly (To Helen Back), so Randy Waples is going to drive her,” he explains. “They’re going to need to have some luck for sure, but I think she’s got a chance.”
Rideau Carleton Raceway’s first race rolls onto the five-eighths oval at 6:30 pm on Sunday and the two-year-old pacing fillies will raise the temperature trackside in Race 5.