FRASERVILLE, ON — Kawartha Downs wraps up its three-week run of Ontario Sires Stakes excitement on Tuesday with seven Grassroots divisions for the two-year-old trotting fillies.
Among the youngsters looking to further their education in the third Grassroots event of their season is Starjest, owned and trained by Kendra Casselman of Peterborough. The Angus Hall daughter made her debut with a 2:12 victory in the second Grassroots event at Quinte Exhibition Raceway on Aug. 2 and will be looking to add to her point tally from Post 1 in the second race Tuesday.
“She behaved good in Belleville. She was going to stop in the middle half, that’s why she went so slow, but the last quarter she trotted in :31.1,” says Al Casselman, who assists his wife with the filly’s care and training. “She warmed up so nice and she was so quiet, there must have been something wrong with her. I hope she’s in that mood on Tuesday.”
Casselman says Starjest’s day-to-day temperament reappeared in her next two starts as the headstrong filly got off track from the outside post in an Aug. 11 Trillium at Windsor Raceway and made a break behind the gate from the rail in the Robert Stewart Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack last Thursday.
“At Windsor she went to duck out the gate by the paddock and by the time she got back on the gate she had spotted them I don’t know how many lengths,” he explains. “And it was the same in the Robert Stewart, she spotted them 20 lengths at the start, but ended up right back with them. She just wants to go fast.
“The rail (Tuesday) will be another adventure. If she’s in between horses she pays attention, but if she’s outside or inside her mind wanders.”
If Starjest minds her manners at Kawartha on Tuesday she will earn a ticket into either the fourth Grassroots event at Dresden Raceway on Sept. 6 or possibly against the top fillies in the Champlain Stakes at Woodbine on Sept. 7.
“I think she belongs with anything if she stays at it. We’re really expecting good things from her if she has a little luck and gets away,” says the veteran horseman, who worked alongside legendary trainer Stew Firlotte. “But she’s sure making it hard on us. I took her up and got her checked for ulcers and found out that I had them and not her.
“If she wasn’t able to compete and she was an idiot it wouldn’t matter so much, but if she wasn’t an idiot she sure could compete.”
Doug Hie will return to the young trotter’s race bike on Tuesday, where he and Starjest will face seven other fillies hoping to earn points toward the Grassroots post season, including division winner Taylorlane Bliss from Post 7.
The first Grassroots division goes postward in Race 1 on Tuesday, with the other six battles scheduled as Races 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 10 on Kawartha Downs’ 4 pm program.