DRESDEN, ON — Ontario’s talented two-year-old pacing fillies will celebrate the Civic Holiday at Dresden Raceway on Monday, where they will compete for a total of $135,000 in nine Grassroots divisions.
Gregory Drew trainee Lady Mach will make her second provincial start in Race 12 on Monday and the Merlin resident hopes she can garner a few more points to add to the 12 she earned in the July 8 season opener at Woodstock Raceway. The Mach Three daughter heads in to Monday’s contest off an impressive win at Hiawatha Horse Park on July 20, which Drew used as a substitute for the July 22 Grassroots event at Sudbury Downs.
“I didn’t go to Sudbury. It’s a long ways to go that early in the year,” explains Drew. “She did race in Sarnia; she wasn’t in with anybody, but I thought she raced well.”
Lady Mach cruised around the outside of the Sarnia oval to a four length win in a personal best 1:59.4, and Drew says the mile did not tax the young pacer in any way and should set her up nicely for Monday.
“Her trip in Sarnia was the first kind of easy win she’s had,” he says. “So she’s off a race that wasn’t too hard on her.”
Lady Mach will start from the outside Post 7 in Monday’s twelfth race, but through her first three starts the filly has clearly demonstrated that she is not afraid to spend some time off the rail. In her June 11 qualifier the filly delivered a classic win from out of the pocket, but her racing debut at Dresden on June 18 saw her parked to the outside for more than half of the mile before she scrambled home to a three-quarter length victory in 2:03 and the she took the outside route from the trailing Post 8 to her third-place finish at Woodstock.
With two wins and one second in her first three starts, Lady Mach is shaping up to be a solid contender in this season’s Grassroots ranks, but Drew, who owns, trains and drives the filly, admits that he was not always confident that she would evolve into a racehorse. A $17,000 purchase from last fall’s Forest City Sale, Lady Mach was not the easiest yearling the veteran horseman has ever educated.
“She’s kind of bull headed,” says Drew. “When I first started her I didn’t think she was that great gaited, but she’s come around. When she got going a little faster her gait straightened up.”
Lady Mach will test her gait and her grit against a tough field of rivals on Monday. Among the fillies who will compete in Race 12 are Mystically, who finished second in her Grassroots debut at Sudbury and will benefit from Post 1, and Ja El Cash Advance, who started her season with a pair of fourth-place finishes in Gold Series Elimination action and will start from Post 6.
Post time for Dresden Raceway’s popular Holiday Monday matinee is 1 pm and the two-year-old pacing fillies are featured in Races 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12.
For complete entries please go to:
http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/edresmo.html