DUNDAS, ON — Local favourite Lady Dillinger rolls into Flamboro Downs on Sunday evening riding a three race win streak, but Gaetan Hebert is a bit uneasy about sending the three-year-old pacer out in the second of three $39,606 Gold Eliminations.

“I don’t even want to go there because her mother broke down there,” says the Waterdown resident. “But she’s got a foundation in her and she’s a three-year-old — her mother was a two-year-old.

“She trained there (Flamboro) her whole life, but I never raced her there. This is the first time she’s racing on a half-mile track,” he adds.

Last season’s Ontario Sires Stakes division champion will make her half-mile debut from Post 5 in the ninth race, and Hebert is hoping she and driver Scott Coulter can continue to build on the comeback that started in a July 2 Gold Elimination at Georgian Downs. She finished third that evening and came back the next week to win her first race of the season in track record style.

“I knew she was coming back close, but I didn’t know if she was ready,” says the filly’s breeder, owner and trainer. “I was surprised when she broke the track record.”

The win was the D M Dilinger daughter’s third start after Hebert brought her home from trainer Nat Varty’s barn. Lady Dillinger had finished fifth in a May 13 overnight at Woodbine Racetrack, third in the season opening Gold Elimination at Rideau Carleton Raceway on May 22 and seventh in the Gold Final one week later.

“I said, this isn’t good, I can do this,” says Hebert. “She needed some TLC.”

Hebert trained the filly through most of her $430,744 two-year-old campaign, turning her over to Varty at the tail end of the season, so the veteran horseman and former blacksmith felt he had an edge on figuring out what was ailing the temperamental miss. After a thorough veterinary examination Hebert even drove the filly himself in her next Gold Elimination, June 13 at Woodbine Racetrack, to try and solve the puzzle of her non-performance.

However, a seventh place finish left her out of the Gold Final for the first time in her career and a pus pocket that burst in her right hind foot scratched her out of the consolation, so Lady Dillinger enjoyed a three week rest before the July 2 Gold Elimination at Georgian Downs that served notice she was back on track.

Since that third-place finish the filly has been indomitable, capturing the July 9 Gold Final, her July 22 Canadian Breeders Championship elimination and the July 30 Canadian Breeders Final.

“Tough races,” notes Hebert. “But if she’s right she’s tough. Let’s just say she has a mind of her own.”

Coulter picked up the drive on Lady Dillinger for the Georgian Downs Gold Elimination, and Hebert admits he didn’t initially tell the young reinsman which horse was heading to the Innisfil oval. Once he divulged that it was Lady Dillinger Coulter quickly agreed to make the trip north and the combination proved to be an instant success.

“He yells good,” says Hebert with a chuckle. “You have to get her attention somehow and he yells good. They get along great.”

Given the family history with Flamboro’s half-mile oval, Hebert has his fingers crossed that Lady Dillinger can progress safely through the elimination round and the Aug. 14 Final because he would love to give her a run at North America’s best in the Aug. 20 Fan Hanover at Mohawk Racetrack.

“We are just trying to get her right for a couple weeks from now,” he says. “Hopefully everything goes well.”

Lady Dillinger and her peers will tackle the Flamboro Downs oval in Races 5, 9 and 11 on Sunday’s 6:20 pm program, with the top three finishers from each elimination returning to Dundas for the Aug. 14 Gold Final.

For a complete list of entries please go to:

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