DUNDAS, ON — Flamboro Downs fans will get an advance preview of the top two-year-old trotting fillies on Saturday afternoon as they wrap up their Grassroots regular season at the Dundas half-mile.

The top 16 point earners from the regular season will return to Flamboro on Sept. 30 for a pair of $30,000 Semifinals and trainer Tom Durand would love to see Marta Maple earn a ticket to the lucrative post season. Unfortunately, the Malabar Maple miss needs a top finish on Saturday to make the leap into the top 16 and she has been handicapped by Post 8 in the second race.

“At Flamboro that’s a tough challenge,” says Durand of the outside post. “And she’s probably got to win this one to get to the Semifinal.”

With 62 points accumulated through one win and one third in three Grassroots starts, Marta Maple is 21 points shy of the current cut off for the top 16. The young trotter heads into Saturday’s contest off a seven length victory at Dresden Raceway on Sept. 4 and Durand says she has shown signs of real talent in her brief career.

“She’s kind of just a beginner. She’s only had three starts,” says the Puslinch resident. “I don’t really know where she’ll end up. I kind of wish I’d had three or four more starts into her so I’d have a better idea. She’s shown some good pieces. She trotted her last quarter in :29.1 at Belleville (Quinte Exhibition Raceway) and I thought that was pretty good, not many horses can do that.”

Durand bred and owns the filly, who made her racing debut in the July 19 Grassroots event at Hanover Raceway where she was placed back from sixth to seventh for causing interference while on a break at the three-quarter pole. After requalifying she picked up a third-place finish in the Aug. 11 contest at Quinte Exhibition Raceway and then claimed the 2:05.4 win at Dresden two weeks ago.

“This filly is not very big,” notes Durand. “She’s just a little thing, but she’s got a big heart and she gets over the ground easily.”

Among the fillies Durand and Marta Maple will face from Post 8 on Saturday are Lady Mae C Fert and Yorkys Girl, who currently sit eighth and twelfth in the point standings and will start from Posts 3 and 5, and number two ranked filly Summer Audit, who will start from Post 6 in the second race.

“She’s just a horse in a race,” says Durand prosaically. “If it’s meant to happen, it will happen.”

In addition to Marta Maple and her peers in Race 2, Flamboro Downs fans will be entertained by the two-year-old trotting fillies in Races 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10. Post time at the Dundas oval on Saturday is 4 pm.

For complete results please go to:

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