SARNIA, ON — Dan Diebold knows that two-year-old trotters don’t always figure things out on their first try, so the Sarnia resident was delighted that Hasty R qualified in time for Thursday’s Grassroots event at Hiawatha Horse Park.

The freshman trotting filly delivered a steady 2:05.2 effort over the Hiawatha oval on Aug. 6 to finish fourth in her qualifier and earn a spot in the second Grassroots event of the season.

“It’s kind of nice the way it worked out,” says the longtime owner. “She had one chance to get qualified, and she got it right for the Grassroots at Sarnia.”

Now Diebold is hoping that the turbulent weather that has buffeted Southwestern Ontario over the past three days will settle down and give all 65 of the trotting fillies headed to Hiawatha on Thursday a dry, clear evening for racing.

“Two-year-old trotting fillies, or even trotting colts, have got enough to cope with, they don’t need weather,” says Diebold.

Hasty R is the third foal from Hasty Image, a Balanced Image mare that Diebold, trainer Peter Core and his father Raymond Core of Sarnia and Don Allensen of Camlachie purchased as a yearling in 1998. The partners invested $45,000 to acquire the mare, who went on to win just $1,650.

“The only thing to do was keep her around and breed her,” recalls Diebold. “I always keep my fingers crossed, because Hasty Image is from the same maternal family as Windsongs Legacy ($1,921,088), the triple crown winner. You always hope that something pops up in the pedigree.”

Both Diebold and trainer Peter Core say it is too early to know whether genetics have smiled on Hasty R. The filly has been a source of frustration to Core, who has spent the last few months tinkering with her shoeing.

“I think she’s got some ability, but we’ve really struggled with her shoeing,” explains Core. “I’m hoping we can get her dialed in.”

As a result of the filly’s shoeing issues, Core is like Diebold — just happy to be participating in Thursday’s Grassroots contest.

“I’m not expecting big things, I’m just happy to be there,” says the horseman. “We’ll line up behind the gate and go from there.”

Core will steer the Armbro Rooney daughter from Post 3 in the tenth race, squaring off against four other newcomers to the Grassroots program, two fillies who competed in the season opener at Clinton Raceway on July 19, and one dropping down from the Gold Series.

“I hope she can race well, get some money, stay qualified, and we’ll go from there,” says Core.

Hiawatha Horse Park rolls out the red carpet for the two-year-old trotting fillies in Races 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 through 11. The Sarnia oval’s first race is slated to go postward at 7 pm.

For complete entries please go to: http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/racing/entries/data/e0813sarfn.dat.