CAMPBELLVILLE, ON — If you conducted a straw poll around the backstretch of a harness racetrack, most trainers would take an inside post over an outside position any day. However, when two-year-old pacing filly Style lines up to defend her Gold Final title at Mohawk Racetrack on Friday evening, trainer John Kopas wishes she were starting a little further to the right than Post 2.

“That’s the only area we do have a problem with her. She’s not real handy from the inside,” says the veteran horseman. “She’s one of those horses you can’t ask for speed right away, she needs to work into it, so from the outside she’s actually better off.

“I’m not saying I want to draw the 10-hole every week, but I’d feel better somewhere in the middle of the gate, rather than down on the inside.”

Style’s record from the outer half of the starting gate at Mohawk is nothing short of superlative. She captured the Aug. 26 Eternal Camnation Stake in a personal best 1:53.1 from Post 10. Her Aug. 8 Gold Final victory came from Post 9 and her Aug. 15 Robert Stewart and July 28 Whenuwishuponastar division victories were from Post 6.

The 1:56.2 score in the Whenuwishuponastar Series was in fact the first indicator to Kopas and owners Glengate Farms of Campbellville and George Hempt of Camp Hill, PA that their filly had the makings of an Ontario Sires Stakes star.

“She acted like a very nice filly all along. She was very willing and enjoyed her work, did everything that we asked her,” recalls Kopas. “But the night she won the first division of the Whenuwishuponastar, she closed from a ways back and paced her last quarter in :27.2, that night we thought we had something special.”

Since that July 28 victory the Rustler Hanover daughter has recorded five wins and two seconds and banked a total of $454,226. In addition to her Gold Series, Eternal Camnation and Robert Stewart victories, Style captured an elimination of the Sept. 10 She’s A Great Lady Stake and finished second in the $688,200 Final one week later.

“We staked her quite extensively, but we were really hoping she would make a very nice Sires Stake filly for us,” says Kopas. “She’s exceeded those expectations obviously.”

The Campbellville resident started Style off in the Grassroots program, where she finished third in the July 10 season opener at Flamboro Downs. The only flaw on the filly’s record came in her second lifetime start, July 17 at Rideau Carleton Raceway, where she made a late break that knocked her out of contention in the Gold Elimination.

In last week’s Gold Elimination at Mohawk, Style and regular reinsman Tony Kerwood started from Post 1 and hit the wire second, one and three-quarter lengths behind Let’s Talk Turkey. This week the pair will be looking for a different outcome from Post 2 in the eighth race.

“We’re looking forward to a good effort,” says Kopas. “She really hasn’t gone a bad race yet this year.”

Let’s Talk Turkey will line up to Style’s right on Friday from Post 3, while the other elimination winners, Cinny Fever and To Helen Back, get Posts 8 and 9.

Post time for Mohawk Racetrack’s Friday evening program is 7:20 pm, with the two-year-old pacing fillies scheduled to battle for their $130,000 Gold Final purse in Race 8.

For complete entries please go to:

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/emohsfr.html#N8