BELLEVILLE, ON — Quinte Raceway wraps up its 2003 Ontario Sires Stakes season on Monday afternoon with the Grassroots wild card for the exciting two-year-old pacing fillies.
Eight divisions of fillies will compete for a total purse of $144,000, and hoping to earn her first piece of the provincial pie is local filly Sleepover Suzie. Owned by trainer Amber Orser of Corbyville and Barbara McCracken of Newmarket, Sleepover Suzie makes her Grassroots debut from the advantageous Post 1 in the tenth race.
“I’m really happy with the rail,” says Orser. “She’s improving every week and I think she’ll probably turn out to be a good little racehorse. She’s not going to set the world on fire this year, but we might get a piece of it Monday.”
Sleepover Suzie heads into Monday’s $18,000 contest off an Aug. 17 start at Rideau Carleton Raceway where a recall took the wind out of the Apaches Fame daughter’s sails. Orser hopes the filly’s effort on Monday resembles the pair of victories she has scored over Quinte’s half-mile oval, rather than the effort she delivered in Ottawa.
“That recall was really hard on her, she raced horrible” notes the trainer. “But she has won in Belleville in 2:04.1.”
Making her debut at Quinte on June 27, Sleepover Suzie was an easy winner in 2:08.2. Since then the young pacer has posted another win and one second and has never finished worse than fifth through six starts, making Orser happy that there were no takers when she advertised the filly for sale last year.
“I tried to sell her last fall. I advertised her in The (Canadian) Sportsman and had some guys come and look at her, but they thought she was too small,” recalls Orser. “She’s kind of short and stocky.”
Orser’s son Jeffery Russett will pilot the filly on Monday and both trainer and driver are hoping the filly brings her best manners to the racetrack.
“She’s a typical Apaches Fame, she’s a little hard to handle,” notes Orser. “When I first took her to the racetrack people looked at her and said, “Oh, I bet she’s a handful,” but she really wasn’t until she had a few starts. I hope she gets covered up on Monday, because she does like to run to the front.”
Among the fillies Orser and Russett will have their eyes on in Race 10 are Grassroots regular Fit For Britt from Post 4 and former Gold Series competitor Soutine Hanover from Post 7.
Quinte Raceway’s special Monday afternoon program gets under way at 1:30 pm, with the talented two-year-old pacing fillies lighting up the half-mile oval in Races 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10.