ELORA, ON — Grand River Raceway patrons will be feeling hot, hot, hot this Friday when the Ontario Sires Stakes Hot Rewards program rolls into Elora along with eight Grassroots divisions for the province’s talented three-year-old trotting fillies.

Fans who enrol in the Hot Rewards program on Friday will receive a $5 food and beverage voucher from Grand River Raceway and each time they visit the Elora oval for an Ontario Sires Stakes race this summer they will increase their chances of taking home a hot tub on Sept. 30, the track’s last OSS event of the season.

While fans flock to the Hot Rewards booth track-side, trainer Mark Steacy is hoping CS I Ama Star will deliver a sizzling Grassroots performance in her second start back following a soft palate operation.

“She’s always lacked that kill at the end of the mile and when I brought her back this year she qualified okay, but when we raced her she still acted the same, so we scoped her and saw that she had a little problem with her palate,” explains Steacy. “So we did some surgery one her and that’s why she’s been off for so long, she just had one start back last week (June 24).”

Steacy trains CS I Ama Star for Paul Lindsey of Fergus, David Reid of Glenburnie and Stan Klemencic of Trenton and the trio will be watching the Mr Lavec daughter closely this week to see if she shows any more spark in the latter stages of Race 4.

“When she raced last week she was a little short, so this will be the test,” says the Lansdowne resident. “Hopefully any improvement will be seen this week. We always expected she would be a better three-year-old for us. She has the gait and size to be that kind of horse.”

In her defence, CS I Ama Star was no slouch at two, posting one win, four seconds and a third-place finish in the season ending Grassroots Championship, for earnings of $47,229.

“If she could do that again this year, we’d be happy,” notes Steacy. “If the throat operation helps her, maybe she can step up more than that, but we’ll be happy if she can be real competitive in the Grassroots.”

Steacy says two things working in the filly’s favour at Grand River are her improved post compared to the Grassroots season opener on May 23 at Dresden Raceway — she will start from Post 3 on Friday rather than Post 6 — and her flawless gait.

“One thing I always liked about her is she’s just so good gaited,” he explains. “You can go as fast on the turns as you can in the straightaways with her, so she should like this track.”

While fans are not watching the three-year-old trotting fillies scorch around Grand River’s half-mile oval they will be entertained by Magicomedian Peter Marucci, who will be roaming through the grandstand wowing young and old alike with his sleight of hand tricks and balloon animal creations, and the Grand River Conservation Authority’s Creepy Creatures show. From 7 to 9 pm the GRCA will awe the Tarmac Show crowd with an assortment of eek-tacular specimens, including boa constrictors, pythons, tarantulas, rats and hissing cockroaches.

The first race on Grand River Raceway’s red hot Canada Day program rolls onto the track at 7:27 pm, with the three-year-old trotting fillies featured in Races 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11.

For complete list of entries please go to:

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/egrvrfr.html