DUNDAS, ON — If there is power in positive thinking, two-year-old trotting filly Powerline Mesa has a shot at Grassroots glory on the $800,000 Championship program at Flamboro Downs on Saturday.

“Last week (Randy) Fritz brought her out about the halfway mark and my Mom started her mantra, �Stay flat girl, stay flat,'” recalls Allan Norris, who shares ownership on Powerline Mesa with his mother Natalie Norris and brother Gary Norris.

Powerline Mesa went on to a 2:02.3 victory for the Brantford residents, her second straight visit to the Flamboro Downs winner’s circle. The Balanced Image miss and trainer-driver Wayne Henry also logged a 2:04.4 win in the last regular season Grassroots event on Sept. 23.

“If she makes it a hat trick I’d be beside myself,” says Norris, “But I’m not going to hold my breath. She is in with some very nice fillies.”

A second generation product of NGA Powerline’s breeding program, which was started over 25 years ago by Norris’s father Sydney, Powerline Mesa earned her way into the Grassroots post season with two wins, one second and one fourth in six Grassroots starts. She will make her bid for the division crown and the lion’s share of the $100,000 Grassroots Final purse from Post 5 in Saturday’s second race.

“We’ve been at this quite a while and, especially for the two-year-olds, it is a pretty long season. It can be pretty rough on them,” notes Norris. “But she seems to be getting better as the season goes on.

“I don’t believe I’ve ever been to a $100,000 race with one of my horses before,” he adds. “It will be very exciting. We are looking forward to it.”

Trainer Carl MacArthur is also looking forward to returning to Flamboro with Southwind Madonna, who clocked an Ontario Sires Stakes equalling performance in the first three-year-old pacing filly Semifinal last weekend. Like Norris, MacArthur says the Camluck filly has shown steady improvement over the course of the season.

“She’s developed quite a bit since I bought her. She’s gained a little weight and is more muscular,” says the Brantford resident, who shares ownership on the filly with Talacadac Stable of Kleinburg. “She’s never really had any bad races.”

Through four regular season Grassroots starts Southwind Madonna posted two wins and one second. She also tackled the top class fillies in the May 23 Gold Series season opener at Kawartha Downs, where she finished sixth in her elimination, the Canadian Breeders Championship at Mohawk Racetrack where she was second in her July 21 elimination and fourth in the July 29 final and the Gold Series event at Flamboro Downs in August where she was second in both her elimination and the final.

“She’s just a sweetheart of a mare. They don’t come around like her too often,” says MacArthur. “She just does what you want her to do and does it so easy.

“She’s just a happy mare and she’s made us pretty happy too.”

Princeton resident Lyle MacArthur will steer Southwind Madonna after her seventh win of the season from Post 2 in Saturday’s eighth race, the last of the eight division finals.

Flamboro Downs raises the curtain on its star studded Grassroots showcase at 4 pm and the $100,000 Finals will be contested in Races 1 through 8 on the Saturday afternoon program.

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