LONDON, ON — Ontario’s talented three-year-old pacing fillies invade Western Fair Raceway on Saturday night, competing for a total of $165,000 in 11 Grassroots divisions.
Several of last year’s stars will return to the Ontario Sires Stakes stage, including the Grassroots Final winner Borderlinegorgious, who will start from Post 2 in the ninth race for Wall Tyme Stables Inc. of Komoka. Stepping up to challenge the freshman leaders are a full slate of newcomers to the provincial program, among them Ray Bunn trainee J N Princess.
“We’ll see how she does in here,” says Denfield resident Bunn. “Hopefully she’ll do all right.”
Racing primarily at the London half-mile, J N Princess has been ultra consistent since making her racing debut on Jan. 15. In 12 starts the Albert Albert daughter has posted five wins, four seconds and three thirds for earnings of $27,222.
“She’s been pretty good. Better than we expected,” admits Bunn, who shares ownership on J N Princess with driver Mike Sumner of London and Ryan and Nicholas Steward of Denfield.
Bunn says several factors have contributed to the filly’s half-mile track success; her size, her gait and her early racing education.
“She’s just a nice average size, but she’s a big gaited filly. She looks bigger on the track than she is,” he explains. “And she’s pretty handy. She learned to be handy through the winter. Mike’s done a pretty good job teaching her how to race.”
Initially Sumner and Bunn focused on teaching J N Princess how to sit in mid-pack and sprint home, but as she started to exhibit her potential and land advantageous post positions they added some gate speed to the filly’s repertoire.
“She got pretty versatile about it, she can do it either way now,” says the trainer.
The young pacer makes her Ontario Sires Stakes debut from Post 4 in the fifth division on Saturday and heads into the $15,000 battle off a close second-place finish in a May 21 overnight at Western Fair that was timed in 1:58.3.
Ironically, Bunn’s top contender in the three-year-old pacing filly division, JM Lucky Girl, will miss Saturday’s Grassroots event in favour of the New PL City Of London Pacing Series Final at Western Fair on Friday. The Camluck miss captured a May 21 leg in 1:57.2 and will start from Post 2 in the $47,900 Final, part of the exciting Molson Canadian Pace program.
“It’s unfortunate the scheduling of it,” laments Bunn. “But she looked like she could do in the (New PL) Final so I opted for it rather than the Grassroots.”
When all is said and done Bunn hopes to have a trio ready to compete in the second sophomore pacing filly event, June 17 at Grand River Raceway, but for now he is eager to see how J N Princess stacks up against the Ontario Sires Stakes competition Saturday.
“The two horse (Hestia) won in 1:58 the other night, so she’ll likely be tough,” he notes. “But I leave the race strategy up to Mike usually.”
In addition to Hestia, J N Princess faces four other fillies making their provincial debut and one veteran of last year’s Grassroots circuit.
Western Fair Raceway sends the first division of three-year-old pacing fillies into the starter’s hands at 7:30 pm on Saturday, with the remaining 10 divisions following at regular intervals throughout what promises to be an outstanding evening of Ontario Sires Stakes action.