CAMPBELLVILLE, ON — Heading into Tuesday’s Gold Series Eliminations at Mohawk Racetrack, Dave Tingley is treading familiar ground with two-year-old trotting fillies Honour Way and What Idid For Love.
Last season the Guelph resident rode a wave of success in the freshman trotting filly division with the remarkable Peaceful Way, who has gone on to earnings of $1.33 million, and this year the trainer has another standout in reigning Gold Final champion Honour Way. The Angus Hall daughter heads into Tuesday’s contest off a third-place finish in the $495,300 Oakville Final and Tingley says the filly has recovered well from the difficult race which saw her on the front end through lightning fast fractions of :28.4, :57.3 and 1:26.3.
“She kind of got abused last week in the Oakville Final. Those were tough fractions and she was chased the whole mile,” he says. “She was a bit aggressive so we’re working on calming her down and keeping her relaxed. She didn’t get a chance to relax in that race.”
Tingley changed the filly’s check bit in an attempt to return the balance of power to driver Chris Christoforou for Tuesday’s start, but does not rule out the possibility that Mohawk fans will see the pair on the front end again.
“If she needs to go to the front, that’s an option, but hopefully it will be a little more civilized tempo,” says the horseman, who shares ownership of Honour Way with Campbellville resident Christoforou, Goin My Way Stable of Holland, PA and Murray Goldberg of Longboat Key, FL.
A $45,000 purchase at last fall’s Forest City Yearling Sale, Honour Way has already returned $168,476 to the partners through just five starts. Her brief resume includes a win in the Sept. 1 Gold Final at Windsor Raceway, runner-up finishes in the Aug. 25 Gold Elimination, the Sept. 7 Champlain Stakes at Mohawk and the Oakville Stakes elimination on Sept. 14 and the third in the Oakville Final on Sept. 20.
Christoforou will be looking for another strong effort from the youngster from Post 4 in the first $49,645 elimination on Tuesday, Race 3 on the 7:40 pm program, while stablemate What Idid For Love will be hampered by Post 10 in the sixth race.
After an impressive win in the Robert Stewart Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack on Aug. 19, What Idid For Love has struggled to find her groove. Breaks in the Windsor Gold Elimination and Champlain required her to requalify before the Oakville, and a break in the elimination relegated her to the $50,000 Consolation where she put the pieces together for a second victory, stopping the clock in 1:58.1.
“She’s a very talented filly, but she’s not quite 100 per cent. She has bad feet and that has made her compensate in other places,” explains Tingley, who trains the Angus Hall daughter for breeders Allister Stables Inc. of Morganville, NJ. “I probably shouldn’t say it, but if she gets sound she might actually jump up and beat the other one.”
While Honour Way has accumulated 75 points toward a berth in the season ending Super Final, What Idid For Love’s error at Windsor left her without any points, so Tingley and Christoforou will be gunning for the filly’s third victory on Tuesday.
The top five finishers from each elimination will return to Mohawk Racetrack on Tuesday, Oct. 5 for the fourth of five $130,000 Gold Finals on their freshman schedule.