GLOUCESTER, ON — Ontario’s talented three-year-old trotting fillies return to Rideau Carleton Raceway on Thursday to take another run at the track record they shattered in both Gold Series Eliminations last week.

Elimination winners Miss Michelle H and Peaceful Way are both hunting for their first Gold Final victory of the season. Miss Michelle H has a trio of elimination wins to her credit, plus one second and one third in Gold Final action, but has so far been denied the top prize, while last season’s division champion and O’Brien Award winner Peaceful Way is making her first sophomore start in a Gold Final after getting off to a rocky start early in the year.

“Unfortunately she wasn’t ready early. She had some problems hitting her knees and Dave (Tingley) had to make some changes with her shoeing,” explains owner Joseph Myers. “Then it was just one thing after another. She got a little sick and we had the stakes engagements in New Jersey.”

During her month-long sojourn at The Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey, Peaceful Way delivered three outstanding performances before running into another bout with sickness in the Hambletonian Oaks Final. The Angus Hall daughter opened her states-side campaign with an impressive 1:53.3 effort in the July 9 Delvin Miller Memorial eliminations, then came back in the $325,000 Final one week later and clocked an eye-popping 1:52.3 mile, just two-fifths of a second shy of Continentalvictory’s world record.

In the July 31 Hambletonian Oaks elimination Peaceful Way posted the 1:54.2 victory by a head, a minuscule margin compared to the six and half lengths she had on the field in the Delvin Miller Final, then faltered in the Aug. 7 Final, making a break in the last turn and being placed back to tenth.

However, the filly proved she was back on track in last week’s elimination round when her 1:56 victory took one-fifth of a second off the Rideau Carleton track record Miss Michelle H had set three races earlier and equalled the Ontario Sires Stakes record set by Pepi Lavec at Hiawatha Horse Park in 2002.

“The Hambletonian Oaks was another occasion of untimely sickness,” says Holland, PA resident Myers. “It was a little too hot for our Canadian girl. She’s used to cooler temperatures and the heat kind of got to her. And there was some sickness in the barn.”

Myers shares ownership on the winner of $1.22 million with his wife Barbara, trainer Dave Tingley of Guelph and breeder Angie Stiller of Arva, but it was Myers who made the decision to purchase the filly out of the 2002 Forest City Yearling Sale for $30,000.

“What makes it more amazing is that we had just come off a bad year in the business the year before and I promised my wife I would not take any unnecessary chances so I decided to buy just one yearling that year,” recalls Myers. “I did a lot of studying the spring before and I decided to buy this filly. We took the 700 mile trip up to Canada to look at her and when they brought her out of the stall I thought, �Oh my God, she’s so small.’ I almost walked away, but I lost a good one a couple of years before that because I convinced myself the filly was too small, and so based on that I wasn’t walking away from this one.

“She’s really pretty petite. People have said to me, �It’s just amazing how she can generate so much speed from such a compact body,'” adds Myers. “But I think Dave said it best. She’s just the type of horse if you set a bunch of horses loose in front of her one of two things would happen; she would go until she passed them or she passed out trying to pass them.”

Peaceful Way and driver Chris Christoforou will be hoping to achieve the former when they line up at Post 2 in Thursday’s seventh race. Unable to make it to Rideau Carleton Raceway for the 6:30 pm program, the Myers’ will be waiting by the phone for Tingley to call with the results and, whether the filly captures her first $130,000 Gold Final of the season or has to wait until next time, her owners will be enjoying the ride.

“She’s been a fantastic filly. How often does a filly like her come along?” asks the retiree, who has been fending off buyers for two years. “If I was one of the big guys and had one of these coming along every year I might have sold her, but how often do you get to enjoy moments like this?”