GLOUCESTER, ON — Ontario Sires Stakes excitement swings into the nation’s capital on Thursday with five Grassroots divisions for the three-year-old trotting fillies, and Spencerville resident Jason Gilchrist hopes the move to Rideau Carleton Raceway’s five-eighths mile oval results in a solid outing for Fallon Seelster.
“She can’t get around a half-mile track very good, so hopefully the five-eighths will help,” says Gilchrist, who shares ownership on Fallon Seelster with his partner in the Raquel Stables, Robert Cusson of L’Orignal. “We’ll see how she handles this race.”
In the Grassroots season opener at Hanover Raceway on June 9, Fallon Seelster made a break in the early stages of the race, but recovered enough ground to claim a fifth-place cheque. A second break in overnight action at Rideau Carleton on June 17 forced the Angus Hall daughter to re-qualify, and Gilchrist was pleased with her efforts on June 21 and July 5. The filly heads into Thursday’s test off a 2:01.2 personal best in the July 5 qualifier.
“She qualified good. She either comes to it, or not at all,” notes the horseman, who trains and drives the fractious filly. “If she’d let me drive her, instead of her wanting to drive herself, we’d get along a lot better.
“At the start of the season this year she seemed a lot more sensible than last, but as we got a few races into her, her brain didn’t connect the way it should have,” he adds.
Gilchrist and Fallon Seelster will start from Post 7 in the third race on Thursday, facing off against a tough field of fillies that includes three Grassroots winners. Betty Rose captured her Grassroots division at Clinton Raceway on June 24 and will start from Post 3 on Thursday, Awesome Edna was a winner at Clinton and will start from Post 6, and Emerald Whisper puts a four race win streak on the line from Post 8.
“The seven-hole is kind of a bad spot for her,” laments Gilchrist. “She’s got some gate speed if you get a chance to use it. Starting from the outside, we’re behind the eight-ball already.”
If the filly puts her best foot forward on Thursday, Fallon Seelster will continue to the fourth Grassroots event over Georgian Downs’s five-eighths oval on Aug. 14. If she does not earn a piece of the $20,945 provincial purse, Gilchrist and Cusson will re-evaluate her career path.
“We’ll see how she handles this race,” Gilchrist explains. “If she doesn’t look like she’s competitive we’ll maybe bow out and aim for some late closers or something.”
Fallon Seelster will be looking to deliver in Race 3 on Thursday, the second of five Grassroots divisions on the Rideau Carleton Raceway program. The three-year-old trotting fillies will kick things off in the first race at 6:30 pm and continue to entertain fans in Races 3, 8, 9, and 11.
For complete entries please go to:
http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/eridcfth.html