SARNIA, ON — Ontario’s talented three-year-old trotting fillies take a break from Gold and Grassroots action this Thursday to visit Hiawatha Horse Park for the second of two Trillium Series events on their provincial calendar.

Sarnia resident Peter Core will harness two starters in the Trillium contest and the veteran conditioner says Maples Image and Windsun Avec Moi have delivered respectable results on the Grassroots circuit through the first half of the season.

“They’re not bad, they’re okay,” says Core. “They’re not the best in the program, but they’re not the worst.”

Maples Image will start from Post 2 in the sixth race and Windsun Avec Moi will start from Post 1 in Race 10, a significant improvement over the seven-holes the pair drew at Georgian Downs on Aug. 14.

Neither filly raced last season, and both made their racing debut in the Central Huron Trotting Series at Clinton Raceway in May. Windsun Avec Moi won a leg and finished second in the final, while Maples Image delivered runner-up performances in the legs and finished fifth in the final. Next on the fillies’ dance card was the City of London Trotting Series at Western Fair Raceway, and once again Windsun Avec Moi was second in the final and Maples Image was fifth.

With those six races under their belt, Core decided the fillies were ready to tackle the Grassroots, and Maples Image recovered from an early break to finish third by a head at Clinton Raceway on June 24, while Windsun Avec Moi was placed ahead to second from third when another filly caused interference while on a break.

At Rideau Carleton Raceway on July 12, Windsun Avec Moi scored her second win of the season and Maples Image finished fourth in her Grassroots division. In spite of their tough post position draw at Georgian Downs, Windsun Avec Moi eked out a fifth-place effort and Maples Image was promoted from fourth to third when another filly went inside two pylons during the race.

Core thinks Maples Image might have more speed than her stable-mate, but he says Windsun Avec Moi is the toughest competitor of the pair.

“She (Maples Image) was the best of the four fillies we had. We thought if we had a Gold filly, it was her, but she’s never really put it all together yet,” says Core of the homebred filly he owns with his father Raymond Core of Sarnia, Don Allensen of Camlachie and Daniel Diebold of Thedford. “And she’s a little bit, she could get hot.”

Core, his father and Allensen also share ownership on Windsun Avec Moi, who was a $10,000 purchase at the 2005 Forest City Yearling Sale.

“She’s a competitor. She puts a pretty big effort in every week,” Core says of the winner of $44,689. “She’s done well for us.”

Core and Maples Image take on a tough field in the first $17,998 Trillium division that includes Gold Series regulars Summer Audit and Tymal Timeout from Posts 4 and 8. In Race 10, Windsun Avec Moi will battle fellow Grassroots winners Windsong Darling and Trot Your Sox Off from Posts 3 and 7.

Joining the Grassroots and Gold Series fillies are six American-bred fillies eligible to the Trillium Series by virtue of their Ontario ownership. The fillies will battles in Races 6, 8, 10 and 11 on Hiawatha Horse Park’s Thursday evening program, which gets under way at 7 pm.

For complete entries please go to:

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