GLOUCESTER, ON — After spending eight years away from harness racing, Adrian Hickey hit Ontario Sires Stakes gold with only the second horse he has trained since returning to the game last spring. The Midhurst resident conditions reigning Gold Final champion Lisa’s Mission and will send her out to defend her title from Post 7 in the second of three two-year-old trotting filly Gold Eliminations at Rideau Carleton Raceway on Thursday evening.

“I started out with the Honourable Earl Rowe and I was at it for quite a few years, then I got out of it for about eight years,” says Hickey, who trains Lisa’s Mission for Lisa Morgan of Midhurst.

Morgan and Hickey plucked Lisa’s Mission out of the Canadian Classic Yearling Sale last fall for a mere $28,000. The pair liked her looks and her pedigree — by Mr Lavec and out of Berto Cathy she is a half sister to $203,925 winner Chelemark Ginger and $273,528 Chelemark Bert and a full sister to $543,891 winner Corinas Mission — but were initially discouraged by the filly’s attitude.

“She was a bit of a ball of fire when we started. It took two weeks to get a bridle on her,” recalls Hickey. “She wouldn’t even let you touch her head. As soon as you reached for it she’d be right off the ceiling, but she’s getting very good. In fact we call her �Babe.’ She’s quite a pet now.”

With time and patience Hickey was able to overcome the filly’s aversion to having her head touched and hot on the heels of the initial concern about her manners came a giddy rush of excitement when Lisa’s Mission demonstrated she had inherited the family gene for speed.

“She showed tremendous talent right from the start, as soon as we got her going,” says the trainer. “She was never a filly you had to ask to trot. You could just sit there and if you wanted to trot on you’d just loosen the lines a little.”

On June 11 Lisa’s Mission captured her qualifier at Mohawk Racetrack, circling the seven-eighths mile oval in 2:02.1, and on July 5 she made her racing debut at Mohawk in the Gold Series season opener. After leading the field by as much as six lengths she made a break heading by the three-quarter pole and had to settle for third, an error that she and driver Mike Saftic made up for in the Gold Final one week later when they powered to a 1:58 triumph.

“There was one thing I forgot to tell Mike in her first start; you can’t back her right down,” says Hickey of the filly’s elimination miscue. “He was disappointed in the first one, but pretty confident she’d be tough in her next start.”

Saftic and Lisa’s Mission will begin defence of their Gold Final title from Post 7 in Race 2 on Thursday and Hickey is not at all concerned about the outside position.

“She can leave the gate real well. If you want to leave she can step out of there very fast,” says the horseman. “And she’s good from behind too if he (Saftic) wants to put her there.

“Barring nothing happening to her, she’ll be a very tough filly throughout the season,” he adds. “She’s so nice gaited, she’s very easy on herself.”

Among the fillies who will start inside Lisa’s Mission in Thursday’s second race are former Gold Elimination winner Indigo Sakra from Post 2 and Trillium and Grassroots winner Gramola Grande from Post 3.

The two-year-old trotting fillies raise the curtain on Rideau Carleton Raceway’s Thursday night card at 6:30 pm, with the second and third Gold Eliminations going postward as Races 2 and 4. The top three fillies from each elimination will be back at the Ottawa oval on Thursday, Aug. 4 for their second shot at a $130,000 Gold Final cheque.

For a complete list of entries please go to:

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