GLOUCESTER, ON — When the three-year-old pacing fillies return to Rideau Carleton Raceway on Sunday evening for their $130,000 Gold Final, fans could be in for a record setting performance from the talented field of nine.
In last week’s elimination round Please Me Please and Burning Point stopped the teletimer at 1:54.1 and 1:55 over a track rated one second slower than normal due to an afternoon of rain. If Mother Nature delivers a clear and crisp fall evening the pair could easily match the 1:53.4 record for sophomore fillies over the five-eighths oval.
“It was wet and a little sticky, but she seemed to handle it well,” says Burning Point’s driver Kevin Wallis. “I’m looking for a good effort from her in the Final.”
Burning Point will start from Post 3 in the $130,000 contest and Wallis will be keeping a close eye on Please Me Please from Post 8 and reigning Gold Final winner Jasper Avenue from Post 4. And while he sent the Camluck filly directly to the front in her elimination romp, the Windsor resident says Burning Point can find the winner’s circle off almost any kind of trip.
“I think she’s better coming off the pace, but she’s raced well on the lead too,” he says. “She doesn’t really have to have any special trip. She’s done it every way. She puts her game face on when it comes to race day.”
Conditioned by Linda Wallis for the Cuzzins Stable of Boca Raton, FL, Burning Point will be looking to add a second Gold Final title to her 2003 collection. The Camluck filly has amassed a remarkable record of 17 wins, two seconds and one third in 21 starts this season and shows no sign of slowing down as she heads into Sunday’s battle on a four race win streak.
“She’s very sound and low maintenance. She’s a good eater and she’s really in good flesh,” says Wallis. “She doesn’t appear to be showing any symptoms of being tired.”
After Sunday’s Gold Final Burning Point will prep for the final regular season Gold Series contest before competing in the $300,000 Super Final on Nov. 8. After that the filly’s connections will take a hard look at supplementing her to the Breeders Crown at The Meadowlands, NJ on Nov. 22 and 29.
“There’s a possibility that she might be supplemented to something at the end of the year,” says Wallis. “So far she’s been really special and I just hope nothing happens to her, that she stays sound and healthy.”
Burning Point and her peers star in the eighth race on Rideau Carleton Raceway’s 6:30 pm program Sunday evening. Among the other fillies stepping up behind the gate in the Gold Final is Rocket N Rollit, owned by Marmatt Farms of Woodlawn and Rick Zeron Stables of Oakville, who will start from Post 2.