LONDON, ON — Like every Ontario Sires Stakes fan across the province, Harry Rutherford is expecting another track record performance from the three-year-old trotting fillies at Western Fair Raceway on Friday evening.

However, Rutherford admits to a smidgen of bias. As the breeder and part-owner of Pure Ivory, he would like to see his filly be the one to lower the 1:59.1 record set by Dave Wall and Oaklea Omega in last week’s Gold Elimination.

“Maybe we can take that away from him,” says the Mount Pleasant resident of Wall, who also set the previous record of 1:59.2 with Go To The Top in 1994. “There will probably be a new record on Friday night.”

Pure Ivory and driver Steve Condren will line up right beside Oaklea Omega and Wall in Friday’s $130,000 battle. The elimination winners will start from Posts 2 and 3, meaning one of them will not get to replicate the front end strategy they used last week.

“There will be some movement going on,” speculates Rutherford, who shares ownership on last year’s Ontario Sires Stakes and Canadian champion with Milton resident Condren, Jerry Vanboekel of Bright and Christina Maxwell of Cambridge. “But if she doesn’t have any trouble at the gate she should be the best in there, though maybe I’m prejudiced.”

Trouble behind the gate derailed Pure Ivory’s first start of the sophomore season, a division of the June 2 Casual Breeze Stake at Woodbine Racetrack, and the Brad Maxwell trainee made a second break in the Elegantimage Eliminations at Woodbine on June 9.

“Her first start, in the Casual Breeze, she ran behind the gate,” recalls Rutherford. “Her next start, in the Elegantimage, she ran just past the quarter. Steve said she just wasn’t grabbing the racetrack, so they changed her shoes, from aluminium to steel, to give her a little grab and she was good in the Elegantimage Consolation.”

With her heavier footwear Pure Ivory powered to an impressive three and a half length win in the June 16 consolation, stopping the clock in 1:55. The Striking Sahbra daughter was flawless again last week, controlling the fractions and then fending off a determined challenge from Porsche Hall in the stretch to score the 2:01 Gold Elimination win by a neck.

“I thought our race would have gone faster,” says Rutherford, adding that Porsche Hall gave them a little scare in the stretch. “Steve told me he asked her just coming around the turn and she responded, then in the stretch he let her relax and she came right back to him. I think he just let her relax a little too much and then he had to get her stirred up again.”

Watching Pure Ivory battle Porsche Hall in the elimination reminded Rutherford of the filly’s mother Image Control, who was a top Gold Series competitor when he and partner Diane Ingham purchased her in September 1998.

“I remember her mother, she spent a lot of time on the outside of the racetrack and she just kept coming and coming,” says the breeder. “She had a ton of heart and I think she’s passed it on to this filly.”

Pure Ivory will give Western Fair Raceway fans a second look at her heart in Friday’s eleventh race. In addition to the $130,00 Gold Final, fans will also be treated to the City of London Series Finals on the program, which gets under way at 7:35 pm.

For complete entries please go to:

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/elonfr.html#N11