CAMPBELLVILLE, ON — Fresh off a victory in the Celias Counsel Final last week, three-year-old trotting filly Armbro Beseech will make her first lifetime start in the Ontario Sires Stakes program at Mohawk Racetrack on Monday, May 17.
The strapping bay filly will attempt to score a second straight victory from Post 8 in the first of three Gold Series Eliminations and trainer Bob Young hopes the experience she gained in the Celias Counsel Series will help her make an immediate impact in the provincial program.
“I wanted to have her ready to go in March so by the time May, and the Sires Stakes, rolled around she’d have five or six starts into her,” explains the Guelph resident. “She always showed speed last year, but she had some growth issues. We were waiting for her front end to catch up to her back end.”
The King Conch daughter captured one leg of the Series before pocketing the lion’s share of the $50,400 Final with a come-from-behind effort in 1:56.3. The only blemish on her six race record occurred in the second leg of the Celias Counsel when she struggled with the track surface.
“The track was real hard that night and we checked her all over the next day and her feet were bothering her,” says Young. “So we changed her shoes for the Final and did some work on her feet and she responded.”
Young trains the filly for Stan Klemencic of Trenton, Soprano Stable of Etobicoke, David Dyment of Dundas and BLG Stable of Guelph. The partners offered up $37,000 for the filly at the 2002 Forest City Yearling Sale and have recouped $35,560 of their investment in the last three weeks. A victory in Monday’s $35,121 would put the filly’s bank balance solidly in the black and earn her a spot in the $130,000 Gold Final on May 23.
“Dave Boughton is going to drive her. He drove her in her third lifetime start, so he knows what she’s like,” says Young. “We’ll school her off the gate again Friday, a slow mile about 2:04 or 2:05 with a good last half, and that will be lots for her.
“The idea is to make the top three this week and then see what happens in the Final.”
Among the fillies that Armbro Beseech will face in Monday’s first race are three newcomers to the provincial program, one rival from the Celias Counsel and a trio of Ontario Sires Stakes veterans including Fiesty Kindof Luv (Post 3), Northern Fuchsia (Post 5) and Zorgwijk Emani (Post 6).
The other two Gold Eliminations go postward as Races 2 and 4 on Mohawk Racetrack’s 7:40 pm program, with the top three finishers and one fourth-place finisher returning to the Campbellville oval on May 23 for the $130,000 Gold Final.