SARNIA, ON — Ontario’s talented three-year-old pacing fillies wrap up their Grassroots regular season on Thursday evening at Hiawatha Horse Park.
Among the fillies attempting to shore up their point totals over the Sarnia oval is Illusionist, who has spent the last two and a half months competing against the Gold Series fillies. The two-time Grassroots winner makes her return to the program from Post 3 in the ninth race with the Ontario Sires Stakes’ leading driver Jody Jamieson in the bike.
“I think we don’t have a prayer,” says trainer Jim Ainsworth, whose Lucky Jenny sits just three points back of Illusionist in the Grassroots standings and will start from Post 9 in Race 9. “The nine-hole and Illusionist out of the three-hole — we’re just going to go around twice and hope we get a cheque.”
Under different circumstances Ainsworth may have been a little more optimistic about Lucky Jenny’s chances over her local oval, the Camluck filly has captured two Grassroots divisions herself and finished second in a 1:53.2 mile over Hiawatha on Oct. 2.
“She’s all right. She finished second and paced in 1:54 and a tick her last start,” says the Sarnia resident, who shares ownership on Lucky Jenny with Claude Pearson of Tilbury and Martwest Racing Stable of Mississauga. “But the nine-hole doesn’t give us much of a shot.”
With the current cut off for a berth in the Grassroots Semifinal hovering at 99, Ainsworth is just hoping Lucky Jenny can hang on to her position in the top 16. She has earned 105 points from two wins and one fifth in four Grassroots starts.
Reg Gassien is slated to drive Lucky Jenny in her last Grassroots skirmish, but Ainsworth expects the Lindsay resident to opt out of the long drive once he sees the results of the post position draw.
“If he decides not to come it wouldn’t break me up, I’d understand,” says the trainer, with a laugh. “I think I’ll be driving her myself.”
Ainsworth’s respect for Illusionist lies not just in the filly’s Gold Series experience, but in her results. Since Scott Enman of Pickering, Larry Cometto of Oshawa and John Dragojevic of Nobleton purchased her from Windsor breeder Fred Drouillard on July 18, the Camluck miss has posted impressive results against some of the top fillies in North America.
In her first start for the trio, and trainer Carl Jamieson, Illusionist captured a division of the July 23 Canadian Breeders Championship at Woodbine Racetrack and finished fourth in the final one week later. Second in her first Gold Series Elimination and third in the Aug. 14 Final at Woodbine, the filly then took a run at the historic Fan Hanover Stakes and finished fifth in her elimination. A Trillium Series victory at Grand River Raceway on Aug. 30 set Illusionist up for a start in the Sept. 6 Simcoe Stakes at Mohawk where she finished fifth, and her most recent outing was a second and third in the elimination and final of the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association Stake at Mohawk.
Illusionist will be looking for her third Grassroots victory and her tenth of the season at Hiawatha Horse Park on Thursday. The talented three-year-old pacing fillies are spotlighted in Races 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9, with the first race going postward at 6:30 pm.