INNISFIL, ON — Alias Seelster may have won her Grassroots Semifinal last weekend, but Ray Bunn is afraid to get his hopes up heading into Saturday’s two-year-old pacing filly Championship at Georgian Downs.
“She’s been pretty hit and miss,” says the trainer. “When she’s good, she’s good, but we’ve been having a little hard time keeping her healthy. I’m confident she’s healthy today (Wednesday), and if she can maintain it for a few days it would be good.”
After starting her season with a Gold Elimination win at Flamboro Downs, Alias Seelster came back the next week and finished seventh from Post 8 in the Gold Final. Bunn opted to drop down to the Grassroots for round two and the Intrepid Seelster daughter was a 10 length winner in a track record 1:57.2 at Hanover Raceway.
Back up to the Gold level on Aug. 1 the filly was second in her elimination over Mohawk Racetrack’s seven-eighths mile oval and then finished a disappointing ninth in the Final. A 1:55.4 win in the Trillium Series at Rideau Carleton Raceway boosted the trainer’s spirits, but a ninth-place finish in a Sept. 15 overnight at Mohawk left him scratching his head for the third time. Withdrawn from the Sept. 23 Gold Elimination due to sickness, Alias Seelster rejoined the Grassroots fillies for the last event at Grand River Raceway where she finished second by half a length.
Squeaking into the Semifinal with 75 points, the filly delivered an impressive wire-to-wire effort at Georgian Downs last weekend, stopping the clock in 1:57.3, and Bunn says he has spent the last five days trying to replicate last week’s training routine.
“I’ve tried to go right by the book with what I did last week. You get second guessing yourself when things don’t go well,” admits the Denfield resident. “And you start to really remember what you did when you had some luck.”
Bunn shares ownership on Alias Seelster with Lisa Steward of Denfield and the horseman says the filly has evolved into something of a pet during her roller coaster season.
“She’s kind of spoiled. She’s kind of got to like me and she doesn’t like Lisa too much. She gives her a hard time,” he explains. “She’s a little jealous of other horses and people.”
Alias Seelster and driver Michael Sumner will start from Post 4 in the fourth race, the third $100,000 Grassroots Final of eight on Saturday’s program.
One race later Bud Sinclair will harness the first of three horses he will send out in the Grassroots extravaganza and the trainer was delighted to see Underground King land Post 1 for the big money event. The two-year-old pacing colt captured his Semifinal last weekend, but had to go the long way around the Georgian Downs oval from Post 8.
“He raced super. I wasn’t expecting that at all,” admits Sinclair, who trains the gelding for Dr. Norman Amos of St. Marys, Bill Elliott of Thorndale and Murray Neilson of London. “He should be even better this week. He hadn’t raced for a while before that.”
Underground King went into the Semifinal off a three week lay off after missing the last regular season Grassroots event due to sickness. And while Sinclair was concerned about the colt bouncing back in time for the post season, he wonders now if the lay off is working to Underground King’s advantage.
“He was sick for Peterborough (Oct. 1), but I’m sort of glad I missed it. I think everyone thought that was the Grassroots Final,” says the Stratford resident of the lightning fast miles clocked over the Kawartha Downs oval. “He is fresh, while the other ones are a little tired.”
While Sinclair toughened up the Apaches Fame son’s training regimen heading into last week’s elimination round, the young horseman eased up on the winner of $68,068 this week.
“Last week I trained him up pretty tight, but this week I’ve backed off,” says Sinclair. “We’re just trying to keep him fresh.”
Ray McLean, Jr. will return to the race bike behind Underground King on Saturday, sending the colt after his fourth victory of the season from Post 1 in the fifth race.
The two-year-old trotting fillies open Georgian Downs’s outstanding evening of Grassroots action at 7:35 pm Saturday, with the other seven $100,000 Finals featured as Races 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10.
For a complete list of Grassroots Championship entries please go to:
http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/egeodfsa.html