SARNIA, ON — Ontario’s talented three-year-old trotting fillies will wrap up their Grassroots regular season at Hiawatha Horse Park on Thursday evening and a pair of local fillies are hoping they can grab a share of the provincial pie in their last Ontario Sires Stakes start.
“It’s the last Sires Stakes of the year for the Grassroots, but we thought, �What the heck, we’ll put her in,'” says Watford resident Richard Manders of Icy Welcome. “If things don’t go well we’re only 25 minutes from home.”
Icy Welcome will start from Post 2 in the sixth race on Thursday, making just her second appearance in the Grassroots program this season. The Super Pleasure daughter has struggled all summer with her health and has not raced since a July 20 overnight at Hiawatha.
“The Sires Stakes are all a matter of timing to get them healthy and sound in the summertime and it just hasn’t worked out well for her this year,” notes the horseman, who bred and owns Icy Welcome in partnership with his brother Robert Manders of Watford. “We are looking for her to do well this fall at Sarnia until it closes and at London for the winter.”
Robert Manders also trains the filly and will hand the lines over to Sarnia resident Terry Kerr for Thursday’s test. Kerr and Icy Welcome will line up shoulder-to-shoulder with the other local filly hoping to earn a share of the lucre in her last Grassroots start.
Berndtoacrisp will benefit from the advantageous Post 1 on Thursday and trainer Jamie Doig hopes that will land the filly the kind of trip she needs to compete in the talent laden sixth race.
“She drew probably the toughest division this week,” says the Petrolia resident. “The three outside horses are all coming off first or seconds in their last two starts and I’m sure they’ll be aiming for the front, so hopefully she’ll get a good trip out of it.
“She’s not a big speed horse, but if she gets the right trip she keeps grinding away at them.”
Doig shares ownership on Berndtoacrisp with Wilbert Weatherall of Flesherton and the pair acquired the Berndt Hanover daughter from a mixed sale last fall hoping she would be a regular contributed to the stable’s coffers through the coming months.
“The reason we bought her last year was because she looked like an honest trotter and they’re hard to come by,” says the horseman. “I wanted a horse to have in the barn to pay some bills for the young ones I’m trying to bring on, and she looks like the older she gets, the better she’ll get.”
Through eight starts Berndtoacrisp has a pair of thirds, two fourths and one fifth to her credit. Doig says she earned her way into Thursday’s event with a fourth-place finish in the Aug. 30 Grassroots event at Flamboro Downs.
“I said to myself, �If she gets a cheque at Flamboro I’ll race her at Sarnia,'” explains the trainer, who is just 10 minutes from the Hiawatha oval.
“I don’t race my horses hard. I only race them every two or three weeks so this will be a different test for her to race right back the next week,” he adds. “She’s never done that before, but she’s feeling good and I trained her a little bit this morning (Monday) before I went racing and she was sharp, she finished her mile good and strong. So I’m optimistic. I’m hoping for a fourth or fifth-place cheque and anything more than that is a bonus.”
Richard Manders is in full agreement with Doig. He would just like to see Icy Welcome behave herself and pick up a share of the $15,000 purse.
“Hopefully we’ll pick up some money on Thursday. We’re a cheque stable,” he explains with a chuckle. “As long as they get a cheque we’re happy, and the closer to first the happier we are.”
Icy Welcome and Berndtoacrisp will put their skills to the test in the fourth of eight Grassroots divisions at Hiawatha Horse Park on Thursday. The Sarnia oval sends its first race behind the starting gate at 7:30 pm and turns the spotlight on the three-year-old trotting lasses in Races 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11.
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