CAMPBELLVILLE, ON — One month ago Georgia Peach arrived in Darren McCall’s barn as a Grassroots starter, but on Saturday night at Mohawk Racetrack the Cambridge resident hopes the three-year-old pacing filly can transform into a Gold Series player.

“She’s been quite a surprise really,” says McCall, who conditions the filly for her former trainer Chris Christoforou, Sr. of Campbellville and breeder Banjo Farms of Toronto. “Her first start after I got her I thought was okay, she didn’t beat much, but her next start she won in 1:52.3, with a last quarter in :27.2, and did it quite easy. It prompted me to rethink, because after her first start I thought she wasn’t good enough to go in the Canadian Breeders.”

On Saturday the daughter of Astreos and Armbro Georgia will face six fillies who did compete in the Canadian Breeders, including second and third-place finishers Shipps Bikini and Changing Gears, who will start from Posts 9 and 6 respectively. Georgia Peach will start from Post 3 in the $40,000 contest and McCall believes she landed in the right field for her Gold Series debut.

“We got a little luck with the draw, because the majority of the good ones are in the other division,” explains the horseman. “All going well, we’re hoping she can step up a little more. If she can, she can be competitive with this class.”

Georgia Peach made her sophomore debut, under Christoforou’s tutelage, in the May 25 Grassroots event at Windsor Raceway, finishing third in a 1:54 mile. In her second outing of the year, on May 29 at Mohawk, the filly finished second by a length in 1:54.2. Unfortunately the youngster then fell victim to a round of sickness that went through Christoforou’s barn, and when she regained her health the Campbellville resident had decided to scale back his training activities and sent her along to McCall.

Between the virus and the 40 days that passed between her second and third starts, McCall feels Georgia Peach is just now regaining her fitness. When he decided to give the filly a shot in Saturday’s Gold event, he opted not to enter her in an overnight last week, and tuned her up with a sharp training mile over the Classy Lane Training Centre track on July 26.

“I trained her back in the bike on Saturday and she was very impressive, so she should be even sharper this week,” notes McCall. “She can train very quick and do it very easy.”

McCall adds that Georgia Peach behaves like a true southern belle around the barn, and that she has the good looks to go along with her sunny disposition and racing ability.

“She’s a really nice filly, nice and quiet. She goes out in the field with a miniature horse we have, so she has a companion, and she’s quiet in the barn. She never leaves her grain, she’s just nice to be around,” says McCall. “She’s a good size, very strong and real good looking. If you went to purchase her, you’d buy her on looks for sure.”

Steve Condren will steer the all around equine in her Gold Series debut on Saturday, in the eighth race on Mohawk Racetrack’s 7:30 pm program. The other Gold Elimination field of three-year-old pacing fillies will square off in the fifth race, with the top five from each elimination earning a return trip to the Campbellville oval for the Aug. 9 Gold Final.

For complete entries please go to: http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/emohssa.html.