WINDSOR, OCT. 23, 2001 — Windsor Raceway hosts an impressive line up of Ontario Sires Stakes action this weekend, beginning with two Gold Series Eliminations for the two-year-old trotting fillies on Friday.
Twelve fillies will compete for a total of $98,808, including a pair from trainer Bob McIntosh’s Windsor barn. McIntosh will harness Direct Dial from Post 1 in the first race on Windsor’s 7:25 pm program and Crown Lavec from Post 2 in the third race.
Both fillies have already nailed down a berth in the rich Gold Super Final at the end of the season, with Crown Lavec sitting second in the standings with 187 points and Direct Dial occupying fifth spot with 67 points. The duo head into Friday’s contest off third-place finishes in the Oct. 20 Flamboro Breeders Stake and Flamboro Downs and McIntosh expects them to be sharp in the last Gold Elimination of their freshman season.
“They are coming in to the race in good shape that way,” says the veteran horseman. “Now hopefully they pick that night to behave.”
Balanced Image filly Direct Dial has one Gold Elimination win, one third and one fifth to her credit in five Gold Series starts, banking $39,573 on behalf of McIntosh and his partners CSX Stables of Liberty Center, OH and Michael Kohler of Sterling Heights.
“We raised her. I bought her mother at the Kentucky Sale as a yearling and she had speed, but her lungs were scarred, she had been real sick as a baby,” says the Windsor resident. “She was awfully good gaited and awfully fast so I thought she’d make a good broodmare, then along came this filly.
“She’s a Balanced Image and she can get a bit warm sometimes, but I think she’ll be a nice three-year-old, a year will help her out a lot.”
Stablemate Crown Lavec boasts a steady record of two wins, two seconds and two thirds in eight Gold Series starts, including a Gold Final victory in the Aug. 10 event at Elmira Raceway. The Mr Lavec daughter has banked $146,610 for owners Martin Sternberg of Glen Head and Alvin Katz of Roslyn Heights, NY, who paid just $15,000 for her at last fall’s Kentucky Yearling Sale.
A solid finish in Friday’s event and the $100,000 Gold Final one week later will propel Crown Lavec to the head of the two-year-old trotting filly standings as division leader Corinas Mission will not make the trip to Windsor.
The top four finishers from each Elimination, plus one fifth-place finisher drawn by lot, will return to Windsor Raceway’s five-eighths oval on Nov. 2 for their last Gold Final. The trotting lasses go head-to-head in Races 1 and 3 on Friday evening, with Race 1 getting under way at 7:25 pm.
FOR MORE CONTACT SANDRA SNYDER AT 519-656-2017 OR smsnyder@sentex.net.