Two-year-old trotting fillies trained by John Bax and driven by Steve Byron captured two of the six $18,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots divisions tonight at Georgian Downs.
In the sixth and fastest division Byron worked out a perfect two hole trip for his charge Railee Priti behind pacesetter National Trace who trotted through fractions of :29.3, :59.2 and 1:30.
Just before they reached the final turn Byron pulled the right line on his filly and she responded and trotted by the leader to win comfortably in 1:59.2, the fastest mile in Canada to date this year by a rookie trotting filly on a five-eighths mile track. National Trace held for second while Summers Jewel was third.
It was the first lifetime win in two tries for Railee Priti, a daughter of Muscle Mass owned by breeder Ron Mersky of Paris, Kentucky and trained by John Bax of Peterborough, Ontario.
Bax and Byron’s other trip to the OSS winner’s circle tonight was courtesy of Fiery Eyes who went gate to wire in :30, 1:01.1 and 1:30.1 and tripped the timer in 2:00.4 to defeat Tymal Illbthere and Flexy Millie.
Fiery Eyes was also recording her first lifetime win for Bax who shares ownership of the Mr Lavec miss with breeder Glengate Farms of Campbellville, Ontario. Bax also trained the filly’s dam, the $365,000 winner Aimees Image.
Local trainer Keith Jones of Midland saw his filly Judy The Beauty cruise to a front end score with Bob McClure in the sulky for the 2:00.3 effort. Owned by Randy Zhok of Dover Centre, Ontario, the Muscle Mass daughter was notching her first pari-mutuel victory in her second lifetime start.
Tonight’s other winners were D Espoir (Windsong Espoir) and Jody Jamieson for trainer Dany Fontaine in 2:00.3; Stay In Touch (Kadabra) and Scott Coulter for trainer Bob McIntosh in 2:01 and Were Just Sayin (Holiday Road) with Paul MacKenzie driving for trainer Wayne Langille in 2:01.1.
The next Grassroots event for this group is slated for July 31 at Mohawk while their Gold counterparts will square off tomorrow night at Grand River.
To see the complete results from tonight’s races at Georgian Downs, please click Georgian Downs Results – July 23.