FRASERVILLE, ON — Reg Gassien will be sitting in an unfamiliar spot when his three-year-old pacing filly Armbro Wand comes to Kawartha Downs on Saturday night to compete in an Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots event. Instead of directing the action from the race bike, the Lindsay resident will be watching from the grandstand, nursing injuries he suffered in a serious spill at Sudbury Downs last Friday night.
“I’m all smashed up so I won’t be driving her this week,” says Gassien, who went down with Ray No Coach in the seventh race at Sudbury on July 26. “I’ve got a broken wrist, a sprained ankle and my side is all scraped up and I just found out this morning that my leg is broken too.”
Although his injuries will keep him out of the race bike for several weeks, Gassien has already made one trip to Kawartha Downs to watch two of his horses race and he will be on hand when Armbro Wand starts from Post 8 in the fifth race on Saturday. The veteran reinsman also has a tip for whoever picks up the drive on the Armbro Operative daughter.
“She’s got some high speed, but you just have to be careful with her off the gate,” he says. “Post 8 won’t help her, but I think she’s got enough class to overcome it.”
Gassien shares ownership on Armbro Wand with Larry Ainsworth of Petrolia and Martwest Racing Stable of Mississauga, and Sarnia’s Jim Ainsworth handles her day-to-day conditioning.
The three-year-old fillies are also featured in Races 2, 3, 6, 8, and 9 on Kawartha Downs’ 7:30 pm program Friday. Division leader Red Star Veronica will attempt to pad her 112 point total from Post 8 in the eighth race for trainer Rene Laarman and owner-breeder Robert Murphy of White Rock, BC. Laarman opted to give the Village Jiffy daughter a brief holiday after her last Grassroots victory at Sudbury Downs on July 5 and she heads into Saturday night’s contest off a fourth-place finish in a July 30 qualifier at Mohawk Racetrack.
Its A Cam Lie, undefeated in two Grassroots starts this season, also comes into Saturday’s event off a July 30 qualifier. Trainer Robert McIntosh of Windsor and his partners CSX Stables of Liberty Center, OH chose not to make the trip to Sudbury with the Camluck daughter, racing instead in an overnight event at Woodbine on July 9 where she finished first in 1:56.3.
The talented sophomore pacing fillies will be competing for a total of $108,348 on Saturday night in six Grassroots divisions. At the half way mark in the season the competition for Grassroots points is also starting to heat up as the fillies vie for one of 16 spots on the gate in the post season Semifinal round.