DUNDAS, ON — Friday’s $130,000 Gold Final at Flamboro Downs could provide one of the division leaders with a springboard to the top of the two-year-old pacing filly standings.
After five Gold Series races Northern Harmony has a slight lead over The Patriot with 200 points to her rival’s 187. Both fillies have already won a Gold Final, while Northern Harmony has captured three Gold Eliminations and The Patriot two. At the midpoint in the season they have so dominated the division that their nearest competitor in the Super Final point race has just 83 points.
In Friday’s mid-season rubber match The Patriot will start from Post 1 while Northern Harmony gets Post 5, and Jim Bullock is hoping by the end of Race 9 The Patriot has nudged Northern Harmony to the side and moved into top spot.
“She is pretty competitive I think right now, and we are obviously delighted,” says Bullock, who shares ownership on The Patriot with Edwin Goodman’s Suvretta Stables of Toronto. “Keith Oliver said he thinks she is learning each time out. She is learning to relax when she gets to the front and then go again when she hears horses coming. She is pretty handy on a half mile track.”
Both The Patriot and Northern Harmony captured their eliminations at Flamboro Downs last Friday, along with Jasper Avenue who will start from Post 6 in the Final. Driver Keith Oliver and The Patriot led from wire to wire in their split, stopping the clock in 1:57.1, and Bullock says the Albert Albert daughter made it look easy.
“She is very light on her feet. It struck me right from the beginning when she was training down. She is very easy on herself and seems to float over the track,” says the owner of Glengate Farms in Campbellville. “We own several other fillies in training with John Kopas and this one just seems like she is not working too hard at it — and she is going as fast as the others.”
Like Kopas, Bullock admits that The Patriot’s early season success has been a pleasant surprise. In six outings she has recorded four wins, one second and one third for earnings of $158,147, not a bad return on the $20,000 the partners invested at last fall’s Forest City Yearling Sale.
“Eddie Goodman and I have owned horses together for about 10 years and what we typically do is John Kopas picks out a filly, sometimes from our consignment and sometimes from others, and buys her and then we buy a piece,” he explains. “Then at the end of their three-year-old season, since Eddie doesn’t want to be in the broodmare business, we’ll put them in a sale and if I want to buy them back for a broodmare then I do.”
This time around Kopas selected The Patriot from Glengate Farms’ consignment so her success is doubly satisfying to Bullock, who will offer her Rustler Hanover sister for sale at the annual yearling auction this fall.
After Friday’s event The Patriot and several of her peers may enjoy a brief vacation from the races before their next Ontario Sires Stakes event on Sept. 20 while others will be gearing up for a series of major stake races at Woodbine and Mohawk Racetracks, including the $200,000 Robert Stewart, the $750,000 Shes A Great Lady, $272,000 Champlain and $315,000 Harvest.
“We will have to see how it goes here at Flamboro and then make a decision,” says Bullock. “We may give her a break after this.”
The Patriot and eight other talented two-year-old pacing fillies will provide their connections with food for thought in Race 9 at Flamboro Downs on Friday. The half-mile oval’s exciting program of harness racing gets under way at 3 pm.