LONDON, ON — Western Fair Raceway hosts a pair of Trillium Series divisions on Friday evening for the talented two-year-old pacing fillies.
Many of the Ontario-sired fillies are using the $75,368 event to prepare for the Grassroots Semifinals at Hiawatha Horse Park on Oct. 28, including division leader Borderlinegorgious who starts from Post 2 in the seventh race. The consistent young pacer posted a record of three wins, two seconds and one third in the Grassroots regular season and trainer Dean Wall says versatility has been one of her biggest assets.
“If you happen to get in an easier division you can just go to the front with her, but if you are in tough or they want to race it out she races really well from behind,” says the Komoka resident. “And even if she ends up getting roughed up during the mile, she always finishes well.”
Wall trains Borderlinegorgious for his parents’ Wall Tyme Stables Inc. and dad Dave Wall handles driving duties on the Rambaran daughter. Born and raised on the family farm, Borderlinegorgious always exhibited ability but her level of success has been a pleasant surprise.
“She broke really good. She’s prefect gaited,” says Wall. “She’s a little small, but she has a long gait so the speed came pretty easy.”
With Borderlinegorgious heading into the second of four straight weeks of racing, the 35-year-old horseman plans to alter her routine slightly this week. “The way the schedule was she had a lot of breaks, but she goes four weeks in a row now so we’ll train her a little lighter,” he explains. “We usually go four trips in a row with her and we’ll only go two this week.”
The filly heads into Friday’s Trillium off a Grassroots victory at Grand River Raceway on Oct. 15, where she clocked a 2:00 victory over a track rated one second slower than normal. Her 1:59.1 personal best was recorded in an overnight event at Dresden Raceway on Sept. 12, so Wall is not expecting Western Fair’s half-mile oval to present any problems for the petite filly. However, he does expect Gold Series regular Babyremembermyname to put up a significant fight from Post 1.
“That’s a nice filly that has the rail. We haven’t raced in the Golds, but I’ve been watching it and I think she is probably about the third best one in there,” he notes. “She’ll put up a good fight.”
In addition to Babyremembermyname, Borderlinegorgious faces a line-up of Grassroots division winners including Artscase from Post 3, Witness To Fame from Post 5 and Three Kilo from Post 6.
The Trillium Series divisions, open to any filly owned by Ontario residents, are slated as Races 2 and 7 on Western Fair Raceway’s Friday evening program. Post time at the London oval is 7:30 pm.