REXDALE, ON — Carl Jamieson has been waiting all season for Lucks Mistress to deliver a performance like last week’s 1:53.1 record setting mile at Flamboro Downs, but four days away from Sunday’s $130,000 Gold Final the Princeton resident is worried that he might be back at square one.

“I’ve got a lot of sickness going through the barn right now,” says the Princeton resident. “Sometimes they’re strong enough to fight it off, but sometimes they’re not.”

At the start of the season Lucks Mistress battled an infection that took Jamieson six weeks to sort out. Since then the three-year-old pacing filly has been delivering the kind of performances fans came to expect through her $383,630 freshman season.

Returning to action in the July 5 Gold Eliminations at Georgian Downs, the Camluck miss posted a 1:54 victory, then came back in the July 9 Gold Final to finish fourth. She was back in the winner’s circle July 15 in an overnight event at Mohawk Racetrack, establishing a new personal best 1:51.3, then finished second in the Canadian Breeders Championship Eliminations at Mohawk on July 22.

Favoured in the July 30 Canadian Breeders Championship Final Lucks Mistress finished third, one length behind rival Lady Dillinger, but Jamieson thinks the filly would have been in the winner’s circle had he not chosen to change her shoes in the days leading up the race.

“I think she would’ve won the Canadian Breeders, but I changed her shoes, put aluminium shoes on her and she couldn’t seem to handle them,” says the veteran horseman. “Some (aluminium shoes) hold too much, don’t let them break away quick enough; so we put the steel shoes back on her.”

If she can dodge the virus afflicting many of the horses in Jamieson’s stable, Lucks Mistress will start from Post 4 in Sunday’s Final, one spot to the left of the five-hole she and driver Jody Jamieson had in last week’s elimination when they lowered the track, Ontario Sires Stakes and Canadian record for three-year-old pacing fillies on a half-mile track.

“She can leave real fast, but I wouldn’t want to be much father out,” says Jamieson, who trains the filly for his partners in the Lucks Mistress Stable. “It should be an interesting race.”

Lucks Mistress’s long time rival Lady Dillinger will start from Post 1 in the seventh race, while the other elimination winner, Claire’s Apache, gets Post 7.

Flanking the $130,000 Final are a pair of Gold Series Eliminations for the province’s talented three-year-old trotting colts. The top four finishers from each elimination will return to the Dundas oval on Confederation Cup Day, Aug. 21, for their shot at a $130,000 Gold Final purse and trainer Harald Lunde is hoping to make the return trip in spite of his concern about sending Smooth Moves into the fray from the trailing Post 9.

“That’s really bad, that’s not good for him, but what can you do, we have to take the post they gave us,” says the Campbellville resident. “He’ll need more luck, but I still hope he can go to the Final.”

Lunde’s concern is not unfounded. In four of his first five starts the Angus Hall son made early breaks that knocked him out of the running. Smooth Moves has been flawless since June 14 and heads into Sunday’s fifth race off an impressive 1:56 victory in the Canadian Breeders Championship Final, but Lunde would not like to see him return to the bad habits that it took months of hard work to break.

“He showed me early that he was a really good horse, and I thought he could go with the good ones when he stayed flat and didn’t make breaks,” says Lunde, who shares ownership on the colt with Hans Enggren of New Oxford, PA. “He’s still very aggressive, but he’s better for every race I think.”

Steve Condren will have the job of piloting Smooth Moves from Post 9 Sunday and Lunde is confident that if anyone can get the colt through the first quarter unscathed it is the Milton resident.

“He’s really coming along good with him. He (Condren) can take care of an aggressive horse,” says the trainer. “He’s very patient with him, the right driver for my horse.”

Among the colts the pair will face in Race 5 are Canadian Breeders Championship elimination winners Stonebridge Diablo and Stormont Welldone from Posts 3 and 4. The other Gold Elimination goes postward as Race 8.

Flamboro Downs’s Sunday evening program begins at 6:20 pm, with the Ontario Sires Stakes stars highlighted in Races 5, 7 and 8.

For a complete list of entries please go to:

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