INNISFIL, ON — A total of 81 two-year-old pacing fillies are heading for Georgian Downs on Saturday night to compete in their second Grassroots event. The record-setting number of young pacers will split into nine divisions to compete for a total of $135,000 and trainer Carl Jamieson has five chances to capture a share of the provincial pie.
First out of the starting gate for Jamieson is Jasper Avenue, who makes her Ontario Sires Stakes debut from Post 6 in the fourth race. The Village Jasper daughter heads into Saturday’s contest off a 1:59.3 effort in a July 16 qualifier at Mohawk Racetrack and Jamieson says Georgian Downs will be something of a proving ground for the young filly.
“She qualified pretty good, but you don’t know what they’ll do until you get a few starts into them,” says Jamieson, who trains the filly for owner-breeder William Loyens of London. “She might make a Gold filly yet, but we can’t really get too excited about her until we get a couple starts into her and see where she fits.”
During their early lessons Jamieson thought Jasper Avenue ranked behind his next starter, Strong Type, but some problems with her shoeing have kept Strong Type from reaching the potential she exhibited at Jamieson’s winter training base in Florida.
“She was one of my better fillies all winter, but she’s had a shoeing problem,” he explains. “At Woodstock (July 13) she touched herself and made a break.”
Jamieson owns the Strong Clan daughter, who will attempt to score her first victory from Post 1 in the fifth race. In her first Grassroots start at Elmira Raceway on July 1 she logged a fourth-place finish and in Trillium Series action at Woodstock Raceway she could only manage a fifth after making the break at the three-quarter marker.
Savilla Seelster will carry the green and gold colours from Post 8 in Race 7 and she too will be attempting to overcome misfortune at Woodstock. The Camluck daughter was placed back from second to fourth after ducking inside the pylons through the stretch.
Jamieson shares ownership on Savilla Seelster with Jerry Jamieson of Blenheim, Paul Bryant of Kingsville and William Knights of Blenheim and his brother Ivan will make the trip to Georgian Downs to drive her and the other four fillies while their trainer heads to Hanover Raceway for a Trillium event with a freshman trotting filly.
The other two fillies Ivan Jamieson will team are Warrawee Echo and Pinetree Shamrock. Warrawee Echo, who heads into the eight race off a runner-up finish in the Woodstock Trillium, will start from Post 8 and Pinetree Shamrock, who made her provincial debut in the Gold Series, gets Post 4 in the tenth race and final division.
Georgian Downs send the first of the nine Grassroots divisions behind the gate at 7:30 pm on Saturday with the other eight slated as Races 2 thought 8 and Race 10.