LONDON, JUNE 13, 2006 — Since making her debut on the Ontario Sires Stakes scene last July, Pacific Yankee has not finished worse than fifth in provincial action. The three-year-old pacing filly will try and maintain her exceptional record at Western Fair Raceway on Friday evening, starting from Post 2 in the fifth of ten $15,000 Grassroots divisions.

“The most impressive thing about her is that she has danced every dance, Grassroots and Trillium, and never missed a cheque,” says Richard Thompson, who bred Pacific Yankee and shares ownership on the filly with trainer Darren McCall. “She’s not a very big filly, but she’s really got a heart.”

As a two-year-old Pacific Yankee made nine starts in Grassroots and Trillium action and came away with a record of one win, three seconds, three thirds, one fourth and one fifth. The daughter of Pacific Rocket and Boot Scootin Yank made her sophomore debut in the May 22 Grassroots season opener at Quinte Exhibition Raceway and overcame Post 6 to finish second. Then on Monday, June 5 she grabbed a second runner-up cheque in the Trillium Series season opener at Grand River Raceway.

“She’s really good gaited and she can handle a half-mile track,” says Thompson. “Even when she’s drawn bad, she still manages to get a couple of bucks. I wish I had about 10 just like her.”

Pacific Yankee is a second generation product of Thompson’s breeding program. The London resident acquired Pacific Yankee’s grandmother Yankee Caroline as a racehorse and then bred her to Matts Scooter to produce the filly’s dam, Boot Scootin Yank.

“Boot Scootin Yank was the second or third foal out of Yankee Caroline,” recalls Thompson. “She was a strange beast. You could only race her one way, up front. She just wouldn’t even try out of a hole. Fortunately she didn’t pass that on.”

Pacific Yankee’s success has primarily come through off the pace tactics, and Thompson expects McCall will employ that strategy again on Friday. The pair will face a field of seven newcomers to the 2006 provincial scene and as a result Thompson is not sure where the toughest competition will come from.

“I think Jack Darling has got one in there, Miss World, that might give us a problem,” he speculates, “But then somebody you’ve never even heard of could jump up and give you a show. It’s very interesting racing.”

Pacific Yankee prepped for Friday’s contest with a training mile over the Classy Lane Training Centre oval, where McCall is based, and Thompson says the trainer was pleased with the filly’s effort.

“I know he trained her yesterday (Monday) and she was real good,” says the horseman. “You know what we say about her� She’s not the biggest and she’s not the fastest, but she’s good when it counts. She gives it all she’s got.”

McCall and Pacific Yankee will try and add to the 25 points they earned in the Grassroots season opener from Post 2 in the fifth race on Friday. The three-year-old pacing fillies have usurped the first 10 races on Western Fair’s Friday evening program, with the last five reserved for the first leg of the City of London Pacing Series for colts and geldings. The action packed evening of racing gets under way at 7:35 pm.

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