CAMPBELLVILLE, ON — Absent since her sweep of the Gold Series season opener in July, two-year-old pacing filly Modern Connection returns to Ontario Sires Stakes action this Friday at Mohawk Racetrack.
The Modern Art daughter will make her bid for a third straight Gold Series victory from Post 2 in the second $40,000 Gold Elimination, and trainer Joe Seekman says she is heading north in top shape after a short break in her freshman campaign.
“She was eligible to go to Kawartha (Oct. 2 and 9), but we decided to give her a little time and requalify her,” Seekman explains. “She seems pretty good; she’s still eating good and she still looks pretty healthy. That’s why we were aiming for the 11 to 13 start range. You can get carried away when they are racing good.”
After sweeping the Gold Series season opener at Grand River Raceway on July 5 and 12, Modern Connection returned to Grand River for the track’s signature event for two-year-old pacing fillies, the Battle of the Belles, where she finished second in her elimination and fourth in the final. She made her first appearance at Mohawk Racetrack in an Aug. 21 division of the Eternal Camnation Stake, finishing second by one-quarter length to top American-bred Idyllic.
Three more starts at Mohawk followed — a third and a fifth in the elimination and final of the Shes A Great Lady, and a 1:52.4 win in her Sept. 11 division of the Champlain Stakes. Seekman then shipped the talented youngster to Indiana Downs for the Sept. 25 Kentuckiana Stallion Management Stake, where Modern Connection missed getting a cheque for the first time in her nine race career. Off that effort the filly returned to Seekman’s Centreville, MI farm where she enjoyed a mini-vacation before requalifying at Balmoral Park on Oct. 6 and putting in a week of work before heading north Oct. 12.
“She trained well this morning (Tuesday),” reports Seekman. “She trained this morning and then she got on the trailer and headed up, so she’s there now.”
With the 100 points she earned in the season opener, Modern Connection currently sits third in the freshman pacing filly standings and will remain in Ontario until the Nov. 13 Super Final. Seekman and owner-breeders Yousif S. Yousif of Chesterfield, MI and Ameer Najor of Detroit, MI are hoping their careful management of her stakes campaign results in a few more top finishes through the last few events.
“She likes her work, she likes to do it,” says the horseman. “She’s pretty simple, really.”
Among the fillies Modern Connection will face in Friday’s third race is reigning Gold Final winner Lauren from Post 4. Lauren did not make her Gold Series debut until the August event at Rideau Carleton Raceway, so the pair — both daughters of Modern Art — have never met on the racetrack.
With three Gold Elimination wins and two Gold Final titles, Lauren is well out ahead of her peers in the division standings with 275 points. Second ranked Monkey On My Wheel, who was victorious in the Sept. 25 Gold Final at Mohawk, will headline the first Gold Elimination from the outside Post 6, along with Lauren’s stablemate in the Bob McIntosh barn, Bunkhouse Babe. After battling a virus in recent weeks, Bunkhouse Babe makes her first start since the Sept. 25 Gold Final from Post 4.
The top five finishers from each elimination will garner a berth in the last Gold Final of the freshman pacing filly season on Friday, Oct. 22 at Woodbine Racetrack. Only the last two finishers from each six horse field will be eliminated.
The first $40,000 Gold Elimination opens Mohawk Racetrack’s Friday evening program at 7:30 pm, with the second provincial battle slated as Race 3.
To view Modern Connection’s previous Gold Series starts click: Modern Connection
For complete entries click: Mohawk Racetrack Entries — Oct. 15, 2010