WINDSOR, ON — When Ontario’s most talented three-year-old pacing fillies roll into Windsor Raceway on Sunday evening for a pair of Gold Series Eliminations, reigning Gold Final champion In Trepid Water will be looking for her ninth straight victory.
Rick Zeron will pilot the Intrepid Seelster lass from Post 8 in the fifth race and the veteran reinsman was not thrilled with the post or the size of the field in the $56,894 test.
“We’re going to have to overcome the handicap of Post 8,” says Zeron, who drives the filly for trainer Bob McIntosh of LaSalle and C S X Stables of Liberty Center, OH. “And with the 10-horse field they’re not going to be sitting in a row of 10, there will be five in and five out from the get go. That’s how those races are going to play out.”
In all eight of her victories In Trepid Water has controlled the pace from the front end and Zeron says the rationale has been a combination of the filly’s preference and her dominance in the division.
“She’s a filly that comes out of a hole very well, but if I have a chance to put her on the front and control the race, that’s what I’ve been doing,” he explains. “We’ll see how it plays out as the gate folds Sunday, but hopefully we can get spotted somewhere along the rail.”
Zeron will also steer McIntosh trainee Cameron D Art from Post 8 in the eighth race, but he does not expect the Camluck filly to be stepping off the gate as quickly as her stablemate.
“I don’t think she has the gate speed the other filly has. I’ll probably be parked the whole mile,” says the Oakville resident. “Hopefully she’ll have enough get up and go when I have to go three-wide with her to get the job done.
“If they get fighting it out on the front end, that’s going to benefit me, so I’ll cross my fingers and hope that’s what happens.”
Owned by McIntosh, his cousin Al McIntosh of Leamington and C S X Stables, Cameron D Art has compiled three wins and two thirds in nine starts this season, but has yet to finish better than fifth in Gold Series action. Both fillies will need a top four finish to earn their way into the July 9 Gold Final and Zeron jokes that he has a three hour drive Sunday to figure out a way to get them there.
“They are two tough divisions and I’ll have to play it by ear to see what I am going to do,” he says. “I have a three hour drive to try and figure it out, and if I make the wrong decision I have a three hour drive to kick myself in the ass.”
Windsor Raceway’s first race steps in behind the gate at 7 pm on Sunday and the three-year-old pacing fillies will battle in Races 5 and 8. The top four finishers, plus one fifth-place finisher selected by random draw, will return to the border oval for their third $130,000 Gold Final next Sunday, July 9.
For complete entries please go to:
http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/ewrfsu.html