CAMPBELLVILLE, ON — Rene Laarman will harness a pair of two-year-old pacing fillies in this Sunday’s $130,000 Gold Final at Mohawk Racetrack, one coming off six days of rest, and the other off five.
Euphrosini logged her fifth-place result in the only Ontario Sires Stakes event contested last Sunday before a fierce electrical storm swept through the area and forced Mohawk to cancel the remainder of the program. As a result, stablemate Sweetest Smile returned to the Campbellville oval on Monday evening to compete in the second Gold Elimination, finishing third.
“I don’t think a day makes a difference,” says Laarman. “We’ll keep them on the same program and hope they are healthy for the Final.”
Like every other trainer in Ontario, Laarman has waged a battle against sickness in his barn this summer. Sweetest Smile missed the Aug. 3 Battle of the Belles Consolation at Grand River Raceway due to sickness, and Laarman was not sure what to expect from the filly in her first start back last Sunday.
“I wasn’t 100 per cent sure she how she would bounce back from being sick, but she seemed pretty good,” notes the Guelph resident, who conditions Sweetest Smile for Blueriff Standardbreds of Etobicoke. “We really didn’t recognize it until we trained her going into the consolation.”
Fortunately, the Grinfromeartoear daughter seems to have fought off the bug, and will make her first Gold Final start from Post 1 in Sunday’s eighth race. Seventh in the season opening Gold Elimination at Mohawk on July 13, and fourth in her July 27 Battle of the Belles Elimination, Sweetest Smile will have to deliver a sharp effort on Sunday to earn a shot at North America’s top fillies in the August 22 Eternal Camnation Stake at Mohawk.
“She’s kind of been a natural right from Day 1,” explains Laarman. “She was easy to get broke, paced free-legged right from the get go.
“She’s staked up to a couple of big races coming up here at Mohawk,” he adds. “We’ll see what happens in the final of this Sires Stakes on Sunday.”
Regular reinsman Sylvain Filion will steer Sweetest Smile in the Gold Final, while Jody Jamieson picks up the ride aboard Euphrosini, starting from Post 8.
Like her stablemate, Euphrosini was a quick study through her early lessons, which she learned under the sunny skies in Florida.
“She learned most of her lessons in Florida,” says Laarman. “She’s been more than willing to learn her lessons right along. Throughout the winter she acted like she could be a half decent filly.”
The Mach Three lass battled a virus soon after she arrived in Ontario, so Laarman opted to send her to Kawartha Downs for the Grassroots season opener rather than test her skills in the Gold Series. Euphrosini finished third in her Grassroots debut, came back with a fourth in Battle of the Belles Elimination, and then found the winner’s circle with a 1:58.4 effort in the consolation.
In last week’s elimination, Sylvain Filion put her on the heels of fan favourite Western Silk, but could not match that filly’s :26.2 pace through the final quarter and settled for fifth.
“We were following that filly of Casie Coleman’s (Western Silk), but she must have paced home in :26 and we couldn’t do that,” relates Laarman. “We just couldn’t follow her. She kind of took the wind out of our sails, but we were happy to finish fifth and hopefully have a shot at some money in the final.”
Laarman conditions Euphrosini for Glenview Livestock Ltd. of Wallenstein, who offered up $36,000 for the filly at the Harrisburg Yearling Sale last fall, recouping $16,640 through her first four starts.
Western Silk will start alongside Euphrosini again this week, looking for her third win of the season from Post 9. The other elimination winner, Bay Girl, will take aim on the $130,000 Gold Final purse from Post 4.
Mohawk Racetrack’s Sunday evening program gets under way at 7:30 pm, with the gifted two-year-old pacing fillies showing off their skills in Race 8.
For complete entries please go to: http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/racing/entries/data/e0816mohsn.dat.