DUNDAS, ON — Ita De Vie will start from the rail for the first time in four months next Wednesday, Oct. 3 at Flamboro Downs, and trainer-driver Gary Stead is leaning toward an aggressive approach in the three-year-old trotting filly’s last Ontario Sires Stakes start.

“Wednesday is going to be right to the front and take no prisoners,” says Tom Hillier, with a chuckle. “The good ones are outside of us.”

Ita de Vie is not in the running for a berth in the Grassroots post season, so Hillier says Wednesday’s outing is all about giving the filly a shot at a personal best from a favourable post on a fast track. The well-bred daughter of Angus Hall and Precious Image K may have a broodmare career in her future, so her owners would love to see her earn a mark faster than the 2:00.3 she recorded winning an Aug. 24 overnight event at the Dundas oval.

“She’s really well bred on her dam’s side,” notes Hillier, who shares ownership on the filly with Rockwood resident Stead and Larry Cometto of Pickering. “She’s progressively got better, and it seems like she can go the same on a half as she does on a mile track, so Gary is going to drive her himself and leave with her. We’d really like to try and get a mark on her better than two minutes.”

Stead and Hillier performed best man duties at each others wedding more than two decades ago, and Hillier says they have enjoyed reconnecting through Ita De Vie’s sophomore season.

“Gary Stead was my best man 25 years ago, and I was his best man 25 years ago and we reunited on this little horse,” explains Hillier, who makes his home in Dundas. “We bought her as a two-year-old from Joie De Vie Farms. We went down there together and picked her out.”

Through 15 starts Ita De Vie has posted two wins, two seconds and one third for earnings of $16,057. She made two starts against the Gold Series fillies, and Wednesday will mark her second start in the Grassroots program.

“We’re still waiting for her to come up with a big mile,” says Hillier. “Gary has schooled her faster than a lot of these races, we just haven’t had any luck.”

Among the fillies that Stead and Ita De Vie will face in Wednesday’s $20,945 Grassroots division are BJs Fancy, who puts a three race win streak on the line from Post 6, Maple Missy, a Grassroots division winner in the Sept. 15 event at Woodstock Raceway who will start from Post 7, and four time Grassroots division winner Malahide, who gets the outside Post 8.

Ita De Vie and her talented peers go postward in Race 7 on Flamboro Downs’s Wednesday evening program, which gets under way at 6 pm. The other four Grassroots divisions are featured in Races 2, 4, 6, and 9.

For complete entries please go to:

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