DRESDEN, ON — Ontario’s top three-year-old pacing fillies are preparing this week for a return engagement at Dresden Raceway. The historic half-mile oval hosted the sophomore distaffers in their season opening Grassroots event on May 20 and on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 25, they will compete in the second of three Trillium Series events on their 2002 schedule.
The Trillium Series events are open to fillies bred in Ontario and those owned by Ontario residents. Leading the Ontario-breds into the $67,677 event is Maddy Girl, who currently sits in third spot in the Grassroots standings and recently finished second in the elimination round and fourth in the Final of her 2002 Gold Series debut.
Trained and driven by Jim Ainsworth of Sarnia for his wife Shelley and Martwest Racing Stable of Mississauga, Maddy Girl has banked $61,326 in nine starts this season and will be looking to add to that from Post 1 in the tenth race on Sunday.
Among the fillies Maddy Girl will face on Dresden Raceway’s matinee program is local entry Country Chill, making her second start in provincial action. Trainer Donald Strain of Dresden and his partner Carman Rose of Wallaceburg entered the filly in the May 20 Grassroots event at their home oval, but Country Chill delivered a disappointing sixth-place finish and two races later an injured ankle sidelined her for two months.
“She had a sore ankle and we had to give her three weeks right off,” says Strain. “It looks like it helped her some, she’s been getting better.”
Since her return to the racing scene the Chill Factor daughter has one win, one third and one fourth-place finish in three starts and she paced around Dresden in a personal best 1:58.4 in her third-place effort on Aug. 18. Al Cullen will send Country Chill after a share of the $22,559 provincial purse from Post 5 in Race 10 and Strain is adopting a wait-and-see approach toward any future Ontario Sires Stakes starts for the winner of $9,736.
“We’ll just have to wait and see how she does. They’ll be a different brand of horses that she’s in with this week,” says the trainer. “I hope she does all right, but she didn’t do too well in the Grassroots and they’ll likely go just as fast.”
In addition to Maddy Girl, Country Chill also faces American-bred Village Baroque from Post 2 in the tenth race. The Artsplace daughter heads into Sunday’s event off a 1:54.3 win at Hiawatha Horse Park on Aug. 10 and boasts a record of three wins, two seconds and three thirds in 11 starts this year. Trained by Mike Keeling of Cambridge for Charles Armstrong of Brampton, Village Baroque bested Maddy Girl in the first Trillium Series event of the season, circling the Elmira Raceway half-mile in 1:57.2.
Dresden Raceway’s family friendly Sunday matin�es get under way at 1 pm and the three-year-old pacing fillies will up the excitement on this weekend’s program in Races 3, 7 and 10.