INNISFIL, ON — Ontario’s talented two-year-old trotting fillies will bring the curtain down on their season Saturday night at Georgian Downs in one $73,000 Trillium Series division.
Saturday’s Trillium will be the second time in two weeks that Blueridge Yankee has made the trip to Innisfil and trainer Scott McEneny is hoping the Striking Sahbra daughter can put together another solid effort in spite of landing Post 8 in the 11 filly field.
“She’s got a lot of talent, but she’s a little tricky behind the gate,” says McEneny, who shares ownership on the filly with Whitesand Valley Stables Inc. of Orillia. “She’s starting to get better, so if she can keep her head on right she should be able to leave and hopefully get spotted.”
In her Nov. 11 start at Georgian Downs, Blueridge Yankee delivered a steady performance that earned her the runner-up spot behind three-year-old trotting colt Speeden. Dave Boughton piloted the filly to her best result in two months and will return to the race bike for Saturday’s Trillium outing.
“Dave got along real good with her last week,” notes McEneny. “She’s fairly easy once you get her past the eighth pole.
“You can train her by herself and she’s perfect, nice and relaxed. It’s just when you get her around other horses, she gets nervous,” he adds. “And when the dirt hits her in the chest she doesn’t like that too much either.”
The Waterdown resident has always been impressed with the filly, a half sister to $264,039 winner Dedicated Yankee, and hopes that another winter’s worth of maturity will help her become a contender on the Ontario Sires Stakes circuit as a three-year-old.
“I think she’ll come back and be a decent filly next year. She has the potential to do it if she gets her head on straight,” says the trainer. “I think over the winter she’ll mature pretty good.”
Among the fillies Blueridge Yankee and Dave Boughton will face on Saturday is Arlanda Hanover, who heads into the Trillium on a three race win streak with her most recent triumph coming in the Nov. 12 Matron Stake Final at Dover Downs. The SJs Caviar daughter is eligible to the Trillium by virtue of her Ontario ownership — trainer Mark Steacy of Lansdowne, David Reid of Glenburnie and Asif Malik of Ottawa — and will start from Post 4 in Saturday’s eighth race.
Georgian Downs sends its first race onto the track at 7:35 pm on Saturday, with the two-year-old trotting fillies wrapping up their Ontario stakes season seven races later.
For complete entries please go to:
http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/egeodfsa.html#N8