WOODSTOCK, ON — Frank O’Reilly will start a pair of three-year-old trotting fillies at Woodstock Raceway on Saturday afternoon and the veteran trainer says both Summertimedreams and Katie Brook are primed to face any Gold Series filly who has entered in the Grassroots wild card event.

“In all honesty I wouldn’t be afraid of the “A” event fillies on the smaller track,” says O’Reilly. “Especially with Summertimedreams, I think she would keep them honest.”

In each Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots division one of six regular season events is designated as a wild card, meaning the top level horses are able to compete in it without missing a corresponding Gold event. While neither of O’Reilly’s starters will face a Gold Series regular, Summertimedreams will face off against two fillies sitting right above her in the Grassroots race.

With one win and one second under her belt from three Grassroots starts, Summertimedreams has accumulated 75 points and sits fifth in the standings. Ava Hall has five more points from one win, one second and one fifth and Grand Tiara sits in a two-way tie for third with 100 points garnered in a pair of wins and one third. The fillies will line up in a row in Race 11, with Summertimedreams at Post 3, Ava Hall at Post 4 and Grand Tiara at Post 5, and Woodstock’s handicappers have pegged Summertimedreams as the early favourite in the $15,330 contest.

“She is a nice mare, she was a nice mare last year,” says O’Reilly. “She is a good “B” event horse because she is just as good on the little tracks as the big ones.”

O’Reilly trains Summertimedreams for John Jesson and John Lessif of Tillsonburg, Duane Hicks of Aylmer and Ronald Lee of Dundas and in 10 starts this season the Earl daughter has banked $41,511. In addition to her Sires Stakes efforts the filly captured an elimination of the Dream Of Glory Stake at Hanover Raceway on July 27 and finished second to trotting colt Abbey Road C in track record time in the Aug. 3 Final.

“She raced really well up at Hanover. We supplemented into that, it cost us $4,500 to get started, but she trotted really big,” he says. “This big old heifer, she can really trot those little tracks.”

While Summertimedreams attempts to lock up her spot in the Grassroots post season on Saturday, stablemate Katie Brook will be looking for a big effort from Post 2 in the third race to move into the top 16. After three Grassroots starts the Must B Sunny filly, bred and owned by Earl Gee of St. Williams, has earned 17 points from one third and one fifth-place finish.

“She’s very green, she only started racing this year,” says O’Reilly. “She trotted real big at Elmira and I expect her to be a little better. We’re going to make a shoeing change on her, she wasn’t getting over the track at Elmira very good, so she’ll either be better or way worse.”

Veteran Ross Battin, a four-time winner of the Lampman Cup as the top driver in the Ontario Sires Stakes program, will drive both of O’Reilly’s starters.

Also looking for a solid effort to bump her into the running for a post season berth is Misshoudini. Owned by Dale Sparks of Woodstock and Randall Crosby of Princeton, the Royal Ballad daughter has a pair of third-place finishes in Grassroots action for a total of 24 points, her only miss coming at Hiawatha Horse Park where she suffered interference at the three-quarter marker.

“I think if we hadn’t got shifted in Sarnia we might be in there,” says Sparks. “She’s honest, and she seems to be getting better her last two or three starts.”

Sparks says the filly’s only problem has been her inablility to fire off the gate, making Post 4 in the second race at Woodstock less of an advantage than it could be for driver Gord Rayner.

“She doesn’t get off the gate very good, but she can come home as long as they don’t run her down, or knock her down,” he says. “They get so far ahead of her she’s got a lot of ground to make up, but as long as she’s making money we can’t complain too much.”

The Wayne Langille trainee has been pegged as the third choice in Race 2, behind Our Pleasure (Post 5) and division leader Zola Smiger (Post 3).

Racing gets under way at 1:15 pm at Woodstock Raceway on Saturday and the three-year-old trotting fillies will befeatured in Races 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, and 11.