WINDSOR, ON — Kilmartin Orphan’s Ontario Sires Stakes debut at Windsor Raceway on Wednesday will be a triumph for owners Betty Ann MacKinnon and Robert Harris no matter where the three-year-old trotting filly finishes.

“She was named Kilmartin Orphan because she is an orphan,” says MacKinnon, who bred the daughter of Earl and J C Lady. “Her mother died shortly after birth.”

MacKinnon and her husband John fed the filly goat’s milk from a bottle for the first four weeks of her life, trudging out to the barn morning, noon and night, until they were able to find a nurse mare to adopt Kilmartin Orphan.

“She was raised by what I call the evil stepmother,” says MacKinnon with a chuckle, “Which was a Thoroughbred mare named Arrow. It took us about three weeks before the two of them could become a family, but eventually the mare took to her and raised her up until she was weaned.”

Once Kilmartin Orphan was weaned the MacKinnon’s buddied her up with a Shetland pony for company, and she gambolled about their Glencoe farm until Robert Harris dropped by one afternoon and happened to ask what they were going to do with the then two-year-old trotter.

“I said, �Well, I don’t know,’ and it went on from there,” recalls MacKinnon. “Bob said, �I’d be interested in taking a crack at her,’ and he’s done a really wonderful job. She looks great, he takes really good care of her.”

After learning her early lessons from LaSalle resident Harris, Kilmartin Orphan headed to Mohawk Racetrack to qualify on May 17 and made the first of what would be three consecutive breaks in qualifying action. A combination of bad luck and minor health problems plagued the filly through the first three months of the season before she put all the pieces together in a flawless 2:03.2 effort back at Mohawk on Aug. 5.

“They were putting a new surface on at Mohawk the first day she qualified there and they only had it half done,” recalls Harris. “Trevor Ritchie said when she went from the good surface to the bad surface she kind of lost it.

“Then she popped a little curb, and they take some time to heal, but I said from the start that I think this mare has some longevity to her so we took our time. Thankfully Betty Ann is a very patient woman.”

After her successful qualifier Harris hauled Kilmartin Orphan to Hanover Raceway for an Aug. 17 overnight event and the veteran horseman admits he had no idea what to expect from the trotter.

“We headed up to Hanover not knowing if we’d have to requalify, or if we’d get a cheque, or what,” he says.

However, Kilmartin Orphan and driver Bid Fritz delivered a flawless effort from Post 1 to claim a 2:03.2 victory, cruising under the wire three lengths ahead of the competition.

“I was so thankful for Bud Fritz driving her,” says the trainer and professional blacksmith. “We were very fortunate to get him to drive her.

“She’s just a doll and she’s always shown a lot of ability,” he adds. “She’s not surprising me one bit, she’s just confirming what I believed.”

With Fritz tied up in Hanover on Wednesday, fellow Hall of Famer Dave Wall will pilot Kilmartin Orphan in her Grassroots debut. The duo will start from Post 4 in the fourth race, tackling a field of veteran Grassroots competitors including top point earners Windsun Firstafair and Kind Gesture from Posts 6 and 7.

Kilmartin Orphan and her sophomore trotting filly peers are featured in Races 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9 on Windsor Raceway’s Wednesday evening program, which gets under way at 7:15 pm.

For complete entries please go to:

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/ewrfwe.html