SUDBURY, ON — A sure sign of summer is the advent of the two-year-old Ontario Sires Stakes season and Sudbury Downs will kick off the first long summer weekend on Saturday night with three Trillium Series divisions for the freshman trotting fillies.
Open to fillies bred and raised in Ontario and those bred elsewhere but owned by Ontario residents, the Trillium Series has showcased some talented fillies over the years and this season promises to be no exception. Veteran trainer Norm Jones will start three future stars at Sudbury on Saturday and is hopeful that all three will go home with a share of the $65,874 total purse.
The first filly Jones will pilot around the Sudbury half-mile is the regally bred Lady Stormont. A full sister to $105,823 winner Queen of Stormont and a half-sister to $875,463 winner Lord Stormont and $312,383 winner Earl Of Stormont, Lady Stormont will attempt to follow in her famous family’s footsteps from Post 3 in the second race.
“She’s made more like Earl of Stormont than Queen of Stormont and she’s bigger than Lord Stormont,” says Jones, who trained all three for owner-breeders Stormont Meadows of Long Sault. “She’s a real solid, strong built filly.”
Jones liked the Pine Chip filly so much through her early lessons that he decided to keep her eligible to the $345,000 Merrie Annabelle at the Meadowlands in last July.
“She’s a real nice filly,” says the Rockwood resident. “She’s staked to the Merrie Annabelle, the first one I’ve ever paid into it.”
Lady Stormont heads into Saturday night’s contest off an impressive 2:01.2 qualifier at Mohawk Racetrack on June 14.
Next up for Jones is Lady Meg, who will start from Post 2 in the fourth race. A daughter of Sir Taurus and Armbro Obey, Lady Meg is a petite filly who packs a powerful finishing punch.
“She’s very tiny, very tiny, but she’s a powerful going little filly,” says Jones, who trains the filly for owner-breeder Robert Walsh of Toronto. “She trotted in 2:08 at Flamboro Downs in the mud (June 12) and went a last half in 1:01.3. It was an impressive mile for the size of her.”
In addition to the Ontario Trillium Series events, Lady Meg will compete in the New York Sires Stakes program where Jones hopes her diminutive size will be a benefit on the many half-mile tracks she will visit.
Jones and Walsh partner up again in Race 6 with Erynns Echo, who will start from Post 3. Another Sir Taurus offspring, Erynns Echo is out of $234,852 winner Lovers Image and qualified in the slop at Mohawk Racetrack on June 15.
“She is quite a nice filly too, a nice average sized filly,” says the trainer. “I qualified her in 2:08.3, in the mud also.”
The Jones trio will face a six-horse entry from the Ross Henry barn. The three-time Johnston Cup winner as the leading trainer in the Ontario Sires Stakes, Henry will start two fillies in each Trillium Series division.
Racing action gets under way at 7:15 pm at Sudbury Downs on Saturday night, with the two-year-old fillies ready to test their wings in Races 2, 4, and 6.