INNISFIL, ON — Georgian Downs will be the testing ground for 40 two-year-old trotting fillies on Tuesday, July 4 as they compete in five $19,672 Grassroots divisions.

“It’s her first race, so it will be a teaching lesson,” says trainer Brad Shakes about Meadowview Judy, who will start from Post 3 in the third Grassroots division.

Meadowview Judy heads into her first provincial test off a pair of steady 2:06.3 qualifiers at Mohawk Racetrack on June 9 and 17, and Shakes says the Angus Hall daughter has already accomplished more than he expected when she arrived in his barn last fall.

“She wasn’t really well put together. She didn’t look like a racehorse,” recalls the trainer, who shares ownership on the filly with his father Paul Shakes of Stayner. “If you had taken a picture of her then and one of her now, you probably wouldn’t recognize her. She’s muscled up and matured a lot.”

Shakes says the filly trained down in respectable fashion in spite of her appearance, but it was not until she arrived at the racetrack for the first time that it started to look like a freshman campaign might be in the cards.

“When we started to school her at Georgian Downs she started to surprise us,” says the Stayner resident. “It was kind of, when we got her in a race bike and schooling, she showed us another step. Knock on wood, she’s been just like an older horse to school.

“She’s spooky around the barn and out in the paddock, but when she sets foot on the track she’s like an older horse,” he adds.

Once she had taken a few practice turns around Georgian Downs, Shakes shipped Meadowview Judy to Mohawk for the two-year-old qualifiers, and while he was pleased with her steady efforts he felt she had been a shade better over her hometown oval.

“We were really happy with the way she schooled at Georgian Downs, and it seemed like she went back a bit at Mohawk,” he explains. “She just seemed kind of funny going, like she wasn’t loose, so we made a few changes hoping we can get a little more out of her.”

Veteran reinsman Dave Wall will steer Meadowview Judy from Post 3 in Tuesday’s eighth race and the pair will face off against a field of seven that includes six other first time starters and one filly who made her debut in the Trillium Series at Sudbury Downs on June 24.

Racing begins at 7:35 pm on Tuesday and the two-year-old trotting fillies will test their skills on the Georgian Downs oval in Races 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10.

For complete entries please go to:

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