LONDON, ON — Over the last two weeks In Fine Form has demonstrated her versatility and proved that she belongs among the province’s top two-year-old trotting fillies, so anything she accomplishes in this Friday’s Gold Final at Western Fair Raceway is icing on the very sweet cake her owners have been savouring this season.

“I don’t think I could be any happier,” admits Ingersoll resident Craig Turner, who shares ownership on In Fine Form with Mhairi Kersel of Ingersoll and trainer William Hamm of Wallacetown.

In last week’s elimination round In Fine Form and driver Steve Condren romped to a gate-to-wire victory, to finish two lengths ahead of former Gold Final winner Torch. One week earlier Trevor Ritchie had piloted the daughter of Striking Sahbra and Streamlined to a third-place finish in Gold Final action at Mohawk Racetrack, sitting well off the pace on the outside until the stretch.

“Bill (Hamm) has always said she’s a very handy horse and that we’re going to be able to do a lot of things with her, and, lo and behold, those two drivers proved it in the last two weeks,” notes Turner. “Right now Bill and I, and his family and my family, are having the time of our lives. We just couldn’t be happier with her.”

In addition to her elimination win and third-place Gold Final finish, In Fine Form has a win in a Sept. 9 overnight at Clinton Raceway, two thirds in Gold Elimination action, and a fifth in the season opening Gold Final to her credit. While Turner says he and Hamm have always been confident in the filly’s ability, he admits there was a stretch mid-season where he wondered if she would be better off in the Grassroots program.

“Bill has always expected great things from her,” explains Turner. “I thought maybe he was incorrect, that she wasn’t a Gold horse, but he’s proven me wrong.”

Turner adds that Hamm’s patience with the fractious filly has been the key to In Fine Form’s success. An $18,000 yearling, In Fine Form has earned $51,499 with Friday’s Gold Final, the Nov. 10 Super Final and up to three Trillium Series events remaining on her schedule.

“He had to put the bridle on her piece by piece,” the owner recalls. “His goal was to keep her happy, keep her in a good frame of mind instead of fighting her, and his patience paid off.

“As an owner you buy the best horses you can, but it really comes down to what the trainer can withdraw from the horse and Bill’s done a great job.”

In Fine Form will tackle her third Gold Final from Post 3 on Friday, with the other two elimination winners, Somebody To Love and Bella Dolce, getting Posts 4 and 6. No matter what the filly accomplishes on Friday, nothing can take the gleam off the 2007 season for Turner, Kersel and Hamm, who have also campaigned two-year-old pacing filly Maddam Luck to a Gold Final win and earnings of $129,697.

“For people who started with two yearlings, to end up with two Gold horses,” reflects Turner. “Bill and I have a lot of plans for the future, and I think these two fillies are going to enable us to do that. In fact, they have, we have plans to go to the sale and purchase one or two more.

“(London Standardbred owner) Dan Smith and I have done a lot of business together, and he always says to me, �I don’t know if you have to be lucky to be good, or good to be lucky, but you’re one or the other.'”

In Fine Form and her two-year-old trotting filly colleagues will line up behind Western Fair Raceway’s starting gate in Race 7 on Friday, Oct. 12. The London oval sends its first race into the starter’s hands at 7:35 pm.

For complete entries please go to:

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/elonfr.html#N7