DRESDEN, ON — After a summer marked by one problem after another, Todd Kennedy is looking forward to racing Terra Cotta Rascal in the last Grassroots event at Dresden Raceway on Sunday afternoon.

Favoured in her division of the Grassroots season opener at Western Fair Raceway in May, the three-year-old pacing filly finished a disappointing seventh and only raced four more times before her sophomore campaign ground to a halt in early July.

“She’s had a real tough go of it. She was plagued by problems all summer long,” says Kennedy, who trains the filly for John Fraleigh of Glencoe. “It was a nightmare.”

At two, Terra Cotta Rascal won divisions of the first three Grassroots events, set a 1:59.1 track record at Clinton Raceway and qualified for the post season, so Fraleigh and Kennedy had expected to be players on the provincial scene again this season. Instead they watched from the sidelines while Kennedy tried every therapy under the sun to get Terra Cotta Rascal back on track.

“We didn’t expect to be (division leader) Borderlinegorgious, but we thought we’d at least travel around and be competitive,” says Kennedy. “It’s just been brutal.”

After missing most of July and August, Kennedy qualified Terra Cotta Rascal at Windsor Raceway on Aug. 24 and the Pacific Rocket daughter delivered a solid fourth-place effort in 2:01.2. Back at Windsor on Aug. 31 the filly shaved a few more seconds off her time in a seventh-place effort and on Sept. 11 she earned her first cheque of the season with a 1:56.2 effort that landed her in fifth spot in mixed company.

“It was a such a welcome surprise,” says Kennedy. “Hopefully now we can get back on track and get some competitive races into her.”

The McGregor resident debated long and hard about tackling the Grassroots fillies in the last event of their sophomore season, but the proximity to home and the filly’s history of success on half-mile tracks convinced him to make the trip to Dresden Sunday.

“We kind of hemmed and hawwed, but being how it’s close, we thought we’d try her in the last one,” says the trainer. “If we can get a little bit of luck and get a cheque we’ll be happy and John will go home happy and hopefully we’ll be back on track again.

“She’s pretty good on a half, it doesn’t bother her; she’s handier than some.”

Terra Cotta Rascal will make her bid for one last Ontario Sires Stakes cheque from Post 5 in the second race on Sunday and gets the services of driver Jason Brewer for the second time in a row.

“He seemed to get along with her a little bit,” notes Kennedy. “And he’s had a chance to drive her here and we’ve talked about all her little quirks.

“Being a Pacific Rocket, she tends to be hot. She sort of takes everything to the extreme,” he adds. “Instead of just getting a little on one line she gets on one line so bad you can’t drive her, or instead of getting a little warm, she gets so hot you can hardly hold her. In the barn she’s perfect, just a sweetheart, it’s just once you get into that race zone that she gets a little hot.”

Among the fillies that Brewer and Terra Cotta Rascal will face on Sunday are three currently ranked in the top 16, including division leader and reigning Grassroots Champion Borderlinegorgious, who will start from the outside Post 7. The other three point leaders — Whitesand Trick, Dotted Diamonds and Witness To Fame — will start from Posts 1, 2, and 6.

The talent laden first division goes postward as Race 2 on Dresden Raceway’s 1 pm program Sunday, with the other four Grassroots battles slated for Races 4, 6, 8, and 10.

For a complete list of entries please go to:

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