REXDALE — Reigning Gold Series champ Lucky Irma will make her first foray to Woodbine Racetrack on Monday evening for the second Gold Elimination of her career. The three-year-old pacing filly captured both her elimination and the $130,000 Gold Final over Elmira Raceway’s half-mile oval in May, and trainer William MacTavish is hoping she can deliver an equally impressive performance over the seven-eighths mile surface at Woodbine.
“I have never raced her on a big track,” says MacTavish, who trains the winner of $137,386 for breeder John Christensen of Scarborough. “If she shows what I think she can, it shouldn’t be a problem, but we are stepping on new ground down there. Taking my Volkswagon into Cadillac country.”
A Grassroots Semifinal winner as a two-year-old, Lucky Irma made her Gold Series debut at on May 23 Elmira where she began to shed her Volkswagon image with a 1:57.3 elimination victory in the slop. She followed that up with a 1:56.3 effort in the Gold Final on May 30, complete with a :27.2 opening quarter.
“She always showed me she had the ability, but last year we ran into a lot of problems with viruses,” explains MacTavish. “That’s what happened in the Grassroots Final at Georgian Downs last year, she got sick that night (and finished seventh). She had a very high temperature when we got home and she was very, very sick after that.”
After a much needed winter vacation at MacTavish’s Rockwood farm, the filly returned to training and has been making steady progress since her April 22 qualifier at Mohawk Racetrack. She captured an April 29 non-winners of three races contest at Georgian Downs in 1:56.2, missed the board back at Georgian Downs on May 13 and then posted the Gold Series sweep at Elmira.
Not eligible for the June 6 Trillium Series event at Elmira, Lucky Irma heads into Monday’s contest off the first of several breaks that MacTavish hopes will preserve the filly’s health during the seven month Ontario Sires Stakes season.
“She gets a lot of paddock time. When you’re on the farm like this it really helps them out,” he says. “There’s no use gutting them. It’s like a bar of soap, every start it gets a little smaller.”
Regular driver Dave Boughton will pilot Lucky Irma from Post 8 in the seventh race on Monday, one of three Gold Eliminations on the 7:40 pm program. Among the fillies the duo will face are Wendys Rocket (Post 4) who finished sixth in the Elmira Gold Final, newcomers Magnify This (Post 1), Maple Lady (Post 2) and Burning Point (Post 5) and three fillies making the jump up from the Grassroots tier, Up Front American (Post 3), Tribute To Heroes (Post 6) and Rude Native (Post 7).
Starring in the first elimination, Race 2, is last season’s Ontario Sires Stakes champion Northern Harmony, who will be attempting to redeem herself after a break in the 2003 opener left her sitting on the sidelines for the first time in her career. The Run The Table daughter is trained by Bill Robinson for Don Bray of Newcastle, Angelo Dinardo of Etobicoke, Gerrie Tucker of Montreal, QC and Sampson Street Stables of Old Forge, PA. She will be piloted from Post 4 by regular reinsman Randy Waples.
Two-year-old star The Patriot makes her return to stakes action in the second elimination, starting from Post 5 with Steve Condren in the race bike for trainer John Kopas and owners Glengate Farms of Campbellville and Suvretta Stables of Toronto. The Albert Albert daughter heads into Monday’s battle off a pair of runner-up finishes in qualifying action on May 27 and June 3 at Mohawk Racetrack.
Woodbine Racetrack sends its first race to post at 7:40 pm on Monday with the three-year-old pacing fillies firing things up in Races 2, 3, and 7. The top three finishers from each elimination and one third-place finisher drawn by lot will return to the Rexdale oval on June 23 for their second shot at Gold Final glory.