CLINTON, ON — Clinton Raceway wraps up its 2002 Ontario Sires Stakes season this Sunday with six Grassroots divisions for the two-year-old pacing fillies.
Leading the fillies into their second last regular season event is Pat Me Up, who currently sits in a tie for second spot in the division standings with 125 points. The Gothic Dream lass boasts a record of two wins and one second in three Grassroots starts and owner/trainer/driver Greg Drew of Merlin will send her after a third victory from Post 4 in the fourth race on Sunday afternoon.
Among the fillies who will challenge Pat Me Up in Race 4 is Terra Cotta Fame, owned by Emerson Gill of Grand Bend, Leonard Gamble of Etobicoke and Garry Bowen of London. The Apaches Fame daughter will be looking to build on the third-place finish she logged in the Sept. 7 Grassroots event at Woodstock Raceway and add to her 17 point total from Post 3.
The partners and trainer Gregg McNair considered wrapping up Terra Cotta Fame’s Ontario Sires Stakes season after the Woodstock event, but a solid effort against older horses at Georgian Downs on Sept. 17 caused them to rethink their plan.
“She’s not in the top leagues and we were going to quit with her, but we decided to race her in Clinton,” say Gill. “I’m glad she drew where she did. If you draw the 5 or 6 or 7-hole on a half-mile track it’s pretty tough.”
Gill, Bowen and Gamble are all in the cattle business and happened to be sitting together when Terra Cotta Fame was led into the sales ring at last fall’s Canadian Classic Yearling Sale and Gill says it was a spur of the moment decision to bid on the filly and form the partnership.
“We were just sitting there and we just bought her out of the blue. We hadn’t event looked at her. We’d looked at some others, but not at her,” recalls the long time Standardbred owner. “It definitely was a spur of the moment thing.”
Heading into her ninth start Terra Cotta Fame is just over $700 shy of repaying the trio the $6,700 they invested to acquire her and Gill is confident that she will develop into a solid racehorse in the seasons ahead.
“I think she’ll be a decent racehorse. That’s why I buy them. I don’t buy them to be stakes projects, I buy them to be racehorses, and if you get a stakes horse that’s your ace,” he says. “I don’t think she’ll be a superstar or anything, but I think she’s a decent mare and she’ll probably be bigger and stronger next year.”
Also joining Terra Cotta Fame and Pat Me Up in the fourth race are Streetwise Hanover (Post 1) who currently sits fifth in the division standings with one win, one second and one fifth in fourth starts, and Up Front American (Post 5), who captured her first Grassroots start at Woodstock after dropping down from the Gold Series.
Clinton Raceway calls its first race to the post at 1:30 pm on Sunday and features the two-year-old pacing fillies in Races 2, 4, 5, 6, 11 and 12.