HANOVER, ON — Hanover Raceway rolls out the welcome mat for the three-year-old trotting fillies on Saturday evening, hosting seven Grassroots divisions for the young distaffers worth a total of $105,000.
Last year’s Grassroots champion Disco Inferno will make her sophomore debut from Post 4 in the ninth race, while runner-up Summer Audit, owned by Gresta Limited of Hanover, gets Post 5 in the sixth. Also looking for success on her hometown oval is Paul Walker trainee Windsong Diamond, who makes her return to Grassroots action from Post 8 in Race 5.
“If I’m lucky enough to follow something out that is decent, (Post 8) is not the worst place for her,” says Walker, who has been somewhat disappointed by the filly’s early season efforts to date.
“She raced a race at Elora (Grand River Raceway) two starts back, and she raced good enough I thought she was going to make some improvements, but the last two starts were pretty flat,” explains the Owen Sound resident.
The first foal of $692,853 winner, and former Walker trainee, Early Secret, Windsong Diamond posted a consistent record of one win, three seconds and one third in six starts as a two-year-old, so her connections were hoping for a similar performance this season. However, through four starts Windsong Diamond’s best finish is a third in the May 14 overnight at Grand River Raceway.
The Striking Sahbra daughter heads in to Saturday’s contest off an interference-marred fifth place effort at Hanover on June 2, and Walker says he has been working to address an imbalance in the filly’s blood cell counts discovered after the race.
“I’m not optimistic that she’s going to turn around right away,” says the horseman, who trains Windsong Diamond for breeders Paulette and William Loyens of London and brothers Malcolm and Robert MacPhail of Dover Centre. “But I am still hoping that we can salvage something out of the season.”
Among the fillies Walker and Windsong Diamond will face in Race 5 is former Gold Elimination and Grassroots winner Duchess Of York, who will start from Post 6. Carl Jamieson trains and drives Duchess Of York, who comes into the race with a 1:57.4 victory over Woodbine Racetrack and a trio of seventh-place finishes on her resume.
Hanover Raceway sends its first race in behind the starting gate at 7:35 pm on Saturday, with the three-year-old trotting fillies making their 2007 Grassroots debuts in Races 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 11.
For complete entries please go to:
http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/ehnvrsa.html