HANOVER, ON — Wednesday’s Grassroots event at Hanover Raceway will be a homecoming of sorts for two-year-old trotting filly Summer Audit.

The daughter of Angus Hall and Joyous Image was born and raised on Henry and Barbara Lansink’s Gresta Limited farm in Hanover before beginning her education with Larry Walker last fall. She will make her return to her hometown from Post 5 in the fifth of eight $15,000 Grassroots divisions on Wednesday and comes into the event off a 2:07.2 qualifier at Flamboro Downs on July 5.

“She’s only got the one qualifier,” notes Owen Sound native Walker. “I wanted to try and get her qualified for this one because she comes from Hanover.”

A sister to $132,772 winner Draven, Summer Audit is one of three fillies Walker will harness on Wednesday evening and the Morriston resident says she lagged behind her peers for most of the winter.

“She didn’t show anything until about March,” says Walker. “She hasn’t bloomed yet, but hopefully she will.

“The whole family, they all raced, so I guess it wasn’t a real accomplishment getting her there,” he adds, wryly.

Summer Audit did not sprint away from the starting gate in her qualifier and Walker does not expect that to change in Wednesday’s Grassroots outing. The veteran horseman opted not to teach her to hustle off the gate in hopes that she could avoid the over enthusiasm exhibited by some of her siblings.

“She’s scared of the gate, so she won’t get away good,” he says. “The other ones in the family got a little hot behind the gate, so I never schooled her much.”

Summer Audit’s reticence at the start is in direct contrast to the smart early speed exhibited by her stablemate Heads Up Play in the Grassroots season opener at Georgian Downs on July 4. The daughter of Village Barrister and Who’s On First accelerated off the gate from Post 5, allowed one filly to go by her heading for the three-quarters and then fired back to the front and on to the 2:05.3 victory for Walker, Wayne Murakami of Hamilton and Robert Fasken of Oakville.

Heads Up Play will start from Post 1 in the fourth race and Walker is crossing his fingers that she can replicate or improve on the Georgian Downs result.

“She trained good all winter, but after I baby raced her (June 16) she got sick,” he says. “I kind of rushed her to get her ready for Barrie, so she’ll either be better Wednesday or worse.

“With this heat you always worry that their temperature could go back up again.”

Stablemate Berndt Sugar also raced in the season opener at Georgian Downs, recovering from an early break to finish fourth. This week the daughter of Berndt Hanover and Armbro Lois will make her second start from Post 7 in the eighth race and Walker hopes she finds the outside of the racetrack more to her liking than the inside position she had in Barrie.

“She had the rail last time and that didn’t work, so we’ll try the opposite,” he says. “We had the two-hole and the one horse was scratched so that moved us down along the rail. It might have been better if she had been out farther and moving, but if that doesn’t work this week I’ll know that was a lie.”

Walker bred Berndt Sugar, who is a sister to standouts Lois And Clark ($387,965) and Deux De Mai ($166,788), and shares ownership on the filly with his daughter Megan Walker of Morriston.

Post time at Hanover Raceway on Wednesday, July 19 is 7:20 pm and the two-year-old trotting fillies will test their skills over the half-mile oval in Races 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 10.

For complete entries please go to:

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/ehnvrwe.html