INNISFIL, ON — Michelles Power heads back to Georgian Downs on Tuesday, Oct. 30 riding a streak of six top two performances, and driver Jody Jamieson does not see Post 8 hindering her efforts to add one more Gold Final win to her already impressive resume.
“She’s pretty good right now,” says the Cambridge resident. “I think we can work around Post 8; hopefully it won’t be too big of a detriment.”
The pair captured last week’s Gold Elimination in a track record 1:52, off a trip that Jamieson says suited the filly’s racing style perfectly.
“The race kind of worked out for her. We had live cover until around the last turn,” he notes. “She has such a turn of foot, if I can save her the first five eighths of the mile, she’ll just sprint by horses.”
The 30-year-old reinsman admits that it took him a few starts this season to discern the filly’s preferred racing style, but says since he put the puzzle together she has been at the top of her game.
“I raced her on the front a few times early in the year, and on the big track it was getting her beat, so I had to find a different way,” notes Jamieson, who pilots Michelles Power for breeder Jeffrey Snyder of New York, NY. “I stumbled on it by mistake in the Simcoe. She drew bad and got away fourth, then when I got out I let her pace as hard as she wanted to the front, and she won in 1:50.1. It really showed me if you can coddle her speed a couple of eighths, she’ll give you a big kick.”
Since that 1:50.1 mile in the Simcoe Stakes at Mohawk Racetrack on Sept. 2, Michelles Power has posted a Gold Final win at Mohawk on Sept. 10, a second in the Gold Final one week later, a win in the Garnsey Memorial at The Red Mile in Lexington, KY, a runner-up finish in the Courageous Lady at Northfield Park in Ohio, and last week’s Gold Elimination triumph. Through 16 starts this season the daughter of Camluck and $695,439 winner Michelles Jackpot has posted eight wins, four seconds and one third for earnings of $632,258.
“I think she’s probably in the running for three-year-old pacing filly of the year at the O’Briens,” speculates Jamieson. “That would be a nice feather in her cap.”
A victory at Georgian Downs on Tuesday, and a second straight Super Final title in the Nov. 10 season finale at Woodbine Racetrack would go a long way toward capturing the hearts of O’Brien voters, and Jamieson speculates that trainer William Elliott will also give Michelles Power one last shot at her North American peers in the Nov. 17 Breeders Crown Eliminations at The Meadowlands in New Jersey.
Among the fillies hoping to prevent Michelles Power from clearing the first hurdle in her pursuit of year-end honours are reigning Gold Final winner Simply Mavelous, who will start from Post 5 in Tuesday’s eighth race, Mach You And Me, who came within a neck of claiming last week’s Gold Elimination trophy as her own and will start from Post 6 on Tuesday, and former Gold Final winners Jans Luck and Milliondollarsmile from Posts 1 and 7.
Georgian Downs sends its first race in behind the starting gate at 7:35 pm on Tuesday, turning the spotlight on the three-year-old pacing fillies’ last $130,000 Gold Final battle in Race 8.
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