WINDSOR, ON — An impressive line up of three-year-old trotting fillies are heading back to Windsor Raceway this Friday for their final Trillium Series event of the season.

Open to both Ontario-sired and 100 per cent Ontario-owned fillies, the pair of Trillium divisions spotlights four Gold Series regulars, seven Grassroots competitors and two American-breds.

Among the Grassroots fillies hoping to earn a share of the $63,092 total purse is Sheza Charm, owned by Dennis and Janet Fairall of Windsor and Marcia and Kevin Milne of Scarborough, and trained by Brock McEachern of St. Marys. The Valleymeister filly heads into the race off a runner-up finish in a fog obscured qualifier at Mohawk Racetrack on Oct. 11 and Fairall admits she may be in over her head on Friday.

“We just thought we’d put her in the Trillium because she qualified pretty well,” says Fairall, “But she’s in way over her head, there’s some tough ones in there.”

Sheza Charm will face Gold Series fillies Early Secret from Post 3, Taste Test from Post 5 and Meanstoyourdreams from Post 6 in the fourth race on Friday. Early Secret currently ranks second in the Gold Series standings, Taste Test is seventh and Meanstoyourdreams moved into 11th spot with her third-place finish in the Oct. 6 Gold Final at Windsor Raceway. Sheza Charm will battle the big guns from Post 1 and trainer McEachern says the good news is that she is in the best shape she has been all season.

“She’s had a lot of growing pains all season, nothing serious, but just one thing after another,” says the young New Brunswick native. “She seems to have it all worked out now though.

“I wouldn’t have put her in there if I didn’t think she was half ready. I don’t like finishing last,” he adds with a chuckle.

The long legged filly boasts a record of two wins, two seconds and two thirds in 15 starts this season and McEachern hopes she will display some of the speed he has seen on the training track in Friday’s Trillium contest.

“My whole theory with her was that if I could keep her trotting long enough the speed would come. I’ve seen quarters in :28 out of her,” he explains. “If she just stays trotting every week, the more comfortable she gets with herself, then the speed will come.

“She’s a big mare, I think she’s grown since I got her in April. And I think when she’s done growing and everything settles down she’ll really learn how to trot.”

Looking at the entry list for the Trillium division, the 24-year-old was somewhat awed by the calibre of trainer his name will be listed alongside in Race 4.

“Looking down the page there are some pretty good trotting trainers in there. I don’t know what the horses look like, but there are two Walkers (Larry and Paul), John Bax has two and Rick McNeill does pretty good with them too,” he says. “I’ve only had a couple of trotters before her.”

The star-studded line-up of trainers from the first division are joined by an impressive roster in the second, including another entry from Bax, Canada’s Trainer of the Year in 2001, and Ross Henry, the three-time recipient of the Johnston Cup as the top trainer in the Ontario Sires Stakes program. Bax harnesses Natashas Kiss from Post 5 and Henry sends out Ava Hall from Post 7.

Windsor Raceway kicks off its Friday evening program at 7:25 pm and focuses the spotlight on the three-year-old trotting fillies in Races 4 and 7.