FRASERVILLE, ON — Kawartha Downs presents a full card of stakes races on Saturday night, playing host to 10 Grassroots divisions for the three-year-old pacing fillies as well as the Kawartha Downs 38th Anniversary Pace.
Local filly Lets Go Get Em will make her Ontario Sires Stakes debut at the Fraserville oval on Saturday, and owner Anthony Nichols says the youngster is heading into the race off a well deserved mini-vacation after several months of tough racing at Mohawk and Woodbine Racetracks.
“We’ve left her off about 10 days because we wanted to race in the Grassroots,” says the Omemee, ON resident, whose son Steve Nichols trains the filly. “We’ve jogged her a bit, and she’s been outside a lot, she likes to be outside, and we didn’t train her very hard today (Wednesday).”
Since her sophomore debut at Woodbine Racetrack in early March, Lets Go Get Em has tallied two wins and six seconds in 15 starts for earnings of $41,960. The daughter of Mach Three and Rakland Futura recorded her personal best 1:53 on May 20 when she captured a non-winners of two races contest at Woodbine. Over the last four weeks the youngster has recorded a number of tough miles at Mohawk Racetrack, and made her last start in the final of the Town Pro Series on July 13, finishing sixth.
“She’s been in tough,” says Nichols. “She’s had some good trips and some bad trips. You’ve got to draw good, and get a good trip.
“So far we’ve been happy with her,” he adds.
Lets Go Get Em raced just once as a two-year-old before her connections decided she needed time to mature, both physically and mentally. Nichols bred and raised the youngster on his Omemee farm and describes her as an awkward two-year-old, which she has grown out of, and bit flighty, which she has not.
“She’s a little bit mental, she sees everything,” he explains. “She’s getting better, but she’s just one of those, anything different bothers her.”
In spite of her quirks, Lets Go Get Em seems to have caught on to the business of racing, and has demonstrated a quick turn of foot off the starting gate, a trait driver Aaron Byron may need starting from Post 7 in the first $24,000 Grassroots division. The pair faces a field of Ontario Sires Stakes regulars, including former Grassroots division winner Richlyn Tessa from Post 8.
“We could have drawn better, but somebody has to get those posts,” says a pragmatic Nichols. “She’s getting quite sensible now, she’s still a little flighty, but she’s learning how to race. I think she’ll be good. She’s got the heart to be good.”
Nichols will be on hand to watch Lets Go Get Em at his local oval on Saturday, looking as much forward to the short drive home as he is to the youngster’s provincial stakes debut.
“It was 1974 when I bought my first Standardbred. I played around a little bit with Thoroughbreds too,” notes the horseman. “I’ve put a lot of miles on vehicles going back and forth to racetracks across the country.”
Post time at Kawartha Downs on Saturday, July 24 is 7 pm, with the two-year-old pacing fillies’ Grassroots battles featured in Races 1 though 7 and 9 through 11. The $38,000 Kawartha Downs Anniversary Pace for aged horses and geldings goes postward as Race 8.
For complete entries please go to: http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/racing/entries/data/e0724kdfn.dat.