LONDON, ON — The three-year-old trotting fillies are the last Ontario Sires Stakes division to get their Grassroots season under way, but owner Karen Carroll thinks Monday, June 2 may be a week or two early for Race Car to deliver her best effort against the province’s best.

“She’s a little green. She needs a little more education, I think,” says the Shedden resident of Race Car, who will make her Grassroots debut at Western Fair Raceway on Monday. “Maybe she’ll come into it yet, but the Grassroots is a hard place to learn.”

Unraced at two, the homebred daughter of Berndt Hanover and Carroll’s mare Betshecan has just two starts under her belt. After qualifying four times in April and early May, Race Car made her racing debut over the London half-mile on May 9 and posted a solid second-place finish. On May 17 the filly tried her hand at Woodstock Raceway and made an early break, which knocked her out of contention.

“She just didn’t get around Woodstock as well as I would have liked,” notes Carroll, who entrusts care of Race Car and her stablemate Dance Baby Dance to trainer Wayne Bloomfield of Kerwood. “Wayne thinks she’ll do all right in London.”

Unfortunately, Race Car’s first provincial start will be made even tougher by the post position draw. The filly drew the outside Post 7 in the eighth race. Working in her favour is the fact that many of the fillies in her $20,000 division are equally inexperienced. Only Fa Mulan from Post 3 and Taketwo N Callme from Post 6 have any significant racing experience.

Unlike her stablemate, Dance Baby Dance has a solid education behind her. Last season the Mr Lavec lass made 12 starts, four of them in the Grassroots program, and posted a record of two seconds and one third. In four starts this season, Dance Baby Dance has already accumulated one win, one second and one third, with her victory coming in her May 25 outing at Clinton Raceway.

“She’s come back quite nice actually,” says Carroll of the second foal from her mare Mamasaysdance. “Hopefully she keeps improving.”

Dance Baby Dance will start from Post 6 in the eleventh race, facing off against an experienced field that includes former Gold Series competitor Valley Courtney from Post 1. Don McElroy engineered the Clinton victory, and will be back in the race bike for Monday’s skirmish.

While Dance Baby Dance brings a more accomplished resume to the table, Carroll says that trainer Bloomfield is predicting that Race Car will eventually outshine her stablemate.

“Race Car is a little bigger and a little longer than Dance Baby Dance, but they are both put together pretty nice. They are both well built and they both have a lot of trot,” says the horsewoman. “But, according to Wayne, he thinks Race Car is faster.”

The novice trotter will have an opportunity to prove Bloomfield right when she and Dave “Mr. OSS” Wall roll in behind the Grassroots starting gate on Monday at Western Fair Raceway. Post time at the London oval is 4:05 pm, with the three-year-old trotting fillies stepping to centre stage in Races 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 11, and 12.

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