SARNIA, ON — An outstanding line up of three-year-old fillies will wrap up Hiawatha Horse Park’s 2002 Ontario Sires Stakes season Saturday night as they go to post in their final Trillium Series event.
Among the starters are Gold Series division leader Precious Delight, tough American-bred filly Northern Sky and top Grassroots competitor Maddy Girl.
Jim and Shelley Ainsworth of Sarnia share ownership on Maddy Girl with long time partners Martwest Racing Stable of Mississauga and are looking for a solid end to the filly’s three-year-old season from Post 3 in the tenth race Saturday. The Run The Table daughter was second in the Grassroots Championship at Windsor Raceway on Sunday evening and trainer Jim Ainsworth was pleased with the way the filly raced after recovering from a bout with colic the week before.
“She colicked for a couple of days last week. On Wednesday I didn’t even know if she would be able to race, so I was happy with her effort,” says the veteran conditioner. “I had to call out the vet on Tuesday night, but luckily she didn’t have anything twisted, she was just impacted, so by Thursday she was pretty much back to normal. But it took a lot out of her system.”
With the Nov. 16 Super Final on the horizon Ainsworth was not surprised to see the big guns heading to Sarnia for Saturday’s Trillium. However, he joked that after reading the entries he would not be hitting Maddy Girl with extra homework to cram for this test.
“There’s no sense training the hell out of her. If she races up to her potential she should be third in there at best,” he says. “She’s in pretty tough, with Precious Delight, and Northern Sky is coming off a pretty good start.”
Both Northern Sky and Precious Delight, who will start from Posts 8 and 9, spent last weekend in Ohio competing in divisions of the $150,000 Courageous Lady Stake at Northfield Park. Northern Sky captured her division in impressive come-from-behind style, stopping the clock in 1:54.1 for trainer Jack Darling of Windsor and his partner Daniel Smith of London.
Three races later Precious Delight employed her preferred front-end style to score a 1:53.4 score over top-ranked competition. Peter Heffering of Port Perry bred and owns the Precious Bunny daughter, who has only been bested once in Ontario Sires Stakes action — when she made a break at the start of the Oct. 5 Gold Final at Flamboro Downs.
The fillies will square off in Race 10 on Saturday’s 7:10 pm program. From there the Grassroots fillies, like Maddy Girl, will enjoy a winter sabbatical before returning to the races at four, while the top 10 Gold Series fillies take their game to the next level in the $300,000 Super Final at Mohawk Racetrack on Nov. 16.