DUNDAS, ON — Twenty-one talented sophomore trotting fillies will wrap up their stakes season at Flamboro Downs on Friday evening in a trio of Trillium Series divisions.

Gold Series point leader Whatthehecklavec headlines the group of trotting lasses from Post 7 in the fourth race, but trainer Randy Fritz admits that he won’t know until later this week whether or not she has successfully bounced back from the illness that kept her out of last Saturday’s $300,000 Super Final.

“I had her out in the field all day today (Monday) and she looked better,” says the Carlisle resident, who shares ownership on the filly with breeders Jennifer and Gwendowyn Unger of Caledon. “The big thing is getting her strength back. She was still pretty weak on Saturday.”

While veterinarians continue to search for the pathogen that laid the Mr Lavec daughter up last week, Fritz is concentrating on restoring the filly to complete health. He will evaluate her progress with a light training session on Wednesday and make the decision about Friday’s Trillium after that.

“She is eating everything up and doing good,” notes the trainer. “She should be pretty good, but I’ll know better (Tuesday). I’m going to jog her, then Wednesday I’ll train her and see if she’s strong enough.”

Fritz admits that watching the Super Final was tough experience, and rather than ending the season with a scratch, he would love to see Whatthehecklavec have an opportunity to replicate the Flamboro Breeders victory she scored at the Dundas half-mile on Nov. 4.

Trainer Harold Stead is also hoping that Mattie’s Charm can wrap up her stakes season on a high note in Friday’s Trillium. The Moffat resident had high expectations of the Angus Hall daughter last season, but she too ran into health problems and has not lived up to expectations through her 14 race sophomore campaign.

“I raised her myself and she showed a lot of promise as a two-year-old, but she got sick and never really recovered from it,” explains Stead, who shares ownership on Mattie’s Charm with Wayne Preston of Orillia and Decision Theory Inc. of Richmond Hill. “She’s been a bit of a disappointment.”

Starting from Post 3 in the sixth race on Friday, Stead hopes that driver Mark MacDonald can work out a trip for the filly that sees her earn a share of the $22,154 Trillium purse.

“It always helps to be inside on a half-mile,” notes the veteran horseman. “She can leave strong, so hopefully she can find some position and hold it.”

The third Trillium Series contest goes postward as Race 8 on Flamboro Downs’s Friday afternoon program, which gets under way at 2:45 pm.

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