GLOUCESTER, ON — Ontario’s talented two-year-old trotting fillies make one last stop in the Ottawa area this Sunday to compete in their first $130,000 Gold Series Final.
A pair of local fillies are among the favourites heading into the hotly contested Final, after capturing their eliminations in fine style last weekend at Rideau Carleton Raceway. Hollywood Beauty trotted to the second fastest elimination victory with a 2:02.2 score and Ifhallscouldtalk romped to an eighth length win in 2:03.2.
Hollywood Beauty gets her first crack at a $130,000 purse from Post 3 on Sunday and owner-trainer Lyle Anderson is looking forward to another solid outing by the Angus Hall daughter.
“We had a couple of concerns before the elimination so we made a few changes. We went from a blind to a Kant-See-Back bridle so she could see a bit and put on a martingale because she was getting her head up wanting to go, and I think that helped her,” says the Ottawa resident. “She ended up on the rail because the other horse was scratched so she only had to see one side and she got away fine once she settled in.”
Anderson’s concerns had stemmed from the filly’s first start at Rideau Carleton, where she made an early break in her Trillium Series division on July 4, but the changes clearly suited Hollywood Beauty as she landed in third through the early going and had taken command of the race before the three-quarter pole.
Jacques Hebert drives Hollywood Beauty, a $50,000 US yearling purchase at the Kentucky Standardbred Sale last fall, and Anderson expects the veteran reinsman will have his eyes peeled for Sno Doubt About It in the early going this week.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us. The eight-horse in the Final, Sno Doubt About It, has been close to two seconds faster than the others in each of her starts,” he says. “Darrell Coville seems to want to go to the front quite aggressively with her, so I expect he’ll be leaving from the eight-hole.”
Sno Doubt About It clocked the fastest of the four eliminations, a 2:00.3 effort that saw her lead from wire-to-wire just as she did in her 2:02.2 Trillium win 10 days earlier. However, Anderson is quick to point out that at this early stage of the trotting fillies’ careers it is hard to evaluate one division against another.
“The four eliminations were quite different in their times, but it’s hard to judge when they’re this early in the game,” he says. “I’m surprised, this early, that they have so many that can be competitive.”
The other elimination went to WS Balanced Wheel, who will start from Post 1 in Sunday’s eighth race, in a steady 2:03.1. Ifhallscouldtalk, owned by Melvin Hartman of Ottawa and trained by Rene Laarman, will attempt to extend her win streak to three from Post 6.
Rideau Carleton Raceway’s first race rolls onto the five-eighths mile oval at 6:30 pm Sunday, with the nine gifted two-year-old trotting fillies testing their mettle in Race 8.