FRASERVILLE, ON — Bob Young knows that the field of three-year-old pacing fillies headed back to Kawartha Downs for Tuesday’s Gold Final is loaded with talent, but the trainer is confident that elimination winner Stonebridge Luau has the skills to hold her own in the $130,000 dash.

“She’s not a big strong filly, but she’s holding her own right now. She has had a good year so far,” says the veteran horseman, who trains Stonebridge Luau for Oak Knoll Stables of Campbellcroft. “With the post position on Tuesday there is lots of speed on the inside, but she has really been strong at the end of her miles, so if things go well she’ll be in there.

“This is a very tough division. I don’t think there is a stand out in there at all. It is a very good group of fillies,” he adds. “Post position and racing luck are going to mean a lot.”

Stonebridge Luau and driver Steve Condren will start from Post 6 in the nine filly field on Tuesday, with the other three elimination winners all lining up to their left — Zeglarska Street at Post 1, Moving Pictures at Post 3 and In Trepid Water at Post 5. The other filly that Young will be keeping a close eye on is To Helen Back, who finished just a neck behind Stonebridge Luau in last week’s elimination and will start from Post 2.

“To Helen Back is the one to beat this week, in my opinion,” he says. “That was her first start back and she went a big trip. That race will make her so much stronger this week.”

The Guelph resident expects to see the fillies post some quick early fractions on Tuesday, and he hopes that Stonebridge Luau will be in position to take advantage of a hot early pace.

“I’d like to see, and I think we will see, some good early fractions,” says Young. “If they go some good early fractions, if everything goes well, she’ll be about third over and third over will carry her into the race, then it’s how good she is from there.”

Stonebridge Luau heads into Tuesday’s lucrative contest with three wins, one second and one third in six starts this season. Her only off the board finish came in the Final of the Ontario Sires Spring Series when she made an unexplained early break.

“We don’t really know why she made the break in the final,” reflects Young. “They had it as a fast racetrack, but it had rained and the track was kind of hard and greasy on top, so we attributed it to maybe the track, because she bounced back last week and raced real well.”

Young says Condren has been a key element of the filly’s early season success, and that careful planning will be essential through the remainder of the Island Fantasy daughter’s sophomore campaign.

“This race is going to be seven weeks in a row and the next start after this is a Trillium in Elora and I would probably not want to go,” he explains. “You could go 10 weeks in a row right now and I don’t think that would be the best thing for this filly. We want to keep her as fresh as we can.

“Steve has done a great job with her this year,” he continues. “He has driven her so he only has to move her once, and that’s the last quarter, and that has helped her a lot.”

Stonebridge Luau and Condren will be looking to implement their well tested come from behind strategy in the fifth race at Kawartha Downs on Tuesday, with the first set to go postward at 4 pm.

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