BELLEVILLE, ON — Three-year-old pacing filly Maddy Girl continued to roll through the Ontario Sires Stakes program, recording her third Grassroots victory on Monday afternoon at Quinte Raceway.
Trainer Jim Ainsworth piloted the Run The Table daughter to the wire-to-wire score, stopping the Quinte timer at 1:58.1. The duo were an impressive nine and three-quarter lengths ahead of runner-up Shesabeast and Unique X Ample.
Sarnia resident Ainsworth and his wife Shelley share ownership on Maddy Girl with the Martwest Racing Stable of Mississauga. The filly was making her fourth Grassroots start after successfully tackling the Gold Series fillies at Woodbine Racetrack on Aug. 2 and 9, where she finished second in her elimination and fourth in the $130,000 Final. Her trio of Grassroots wins, plus one fifth-place finish, have earned her top spot in the division standings with a total of 155 points.
In the second Grassroots division Brittash paced around the Belleville half-mile almost as fast as the division leader, scoring her second Grassroots victory in 1:58.4. Doug Brown sent the Kingsbridge daughter to the front from Post 2 and never had to glance back as the filly sailed to the two and one quarter length win over favourite Make Some Noise and Marissa Seelster.
Trainer Roger Mayotte of Mississauga shares ownership on Brittash with Fern Stable of Willowdale, Ross Warriner of Burlington and Stavros Kourgiantakis of Don Mills. The win bumped the filly into second spot in the standings with 117 points, earned through two wins, one third and one fifth in five Grassroots starts.
A 2:01 win in the fifth race was not quite enough to move Swan Song into the top 16. With just one event remaining in the Grassroots regular season, Swan Song hovers just below the current cut off for post season play with 55 points.
Donald Booth of Ottawa, Gus Wersch of Nepean, Richard Cullen of Smiths Falls and Frugal Fellas Farm of Ottawa share ownership on the Pacific Rocket miss, who was making her first appearance of the season in the winner’s circle. Pro Bona Fide and Lucky Entry rounded out the top three in the fifth race, while favourite Armbro Wand made a break heading past the three-quarters and finished sixth.
Gold Series regular Imoutahere lived up to her star billing with a 1:59.2 victory in Race 6. Brett Robinson piloted the Run The Table daughter to the win for his father Bill of Hagersville and owners Gerrie Tucker of Montreal, QC and Sampson Street Stables of Old Forge, PA. Daylon Choice overcame interference at the start to finish second and Twin B Elegant picked up the third-place finisher’s share of the $21,426 purse.
The final division went to Gigalos Gal, who fought off a late charge by Feelin Jiffy to earn a head victory in 2:00.1. The daughter of Gigalo is trained by John Dorion for Bernard Murphy of Milton and boosted her 2002 record to two wins, three seconds and one third in 13 starts. Pastrami Hanover finished third while favourite Daring Caroline was forced to settle for fourth.
The three-year-old pacing fillies make their final Grassroots start on Oct. 2 at Western Fair Raceway in London while the Gold series fillies return to action Sept. 28 at Flamboro Downs.
Monday’s event wrapped up another exciting season of Ontario Sires Stakes racing at Quinte Raceway. The OSS program looks forward to returning to Belleville in 2003 when a new crop of two and three-year-old Standardbreds will be eager to make their mark on the provincial scene.