CAMPBELLVILLE, ON — On Monday night Mohawk Racetrack will be the proving ground for two-year-old pacing filly Treat Me Good. Her owners have liked her since she was an undeveloped yearling, but in Monday’s Gold Final she will face the full strength of a division many are touting as the most deeply talented group in North America.

“I hope she’ll be what we think she is,” says owner and breeder Peter Heffering. “Canada right now has as many good two-year-old pacing fillies as they have down in the States. They are a nice group.”

Treat Me Good started her Ontario Sires Stakes career off on the right foot, capturing her Gold Elimination last week in impressive come from behind fashion. Starting from the outside Post 9, Treat Me Good and driver Luc Ouellette were forced to sit on the outside through the entire mile before sprinting around the last turn and down the stretch to a 1:54.4 victory.

“Last week she was parked every step of the way from the ten-hole and still went in 1:54.4,” notes Heffering, who shares ownership on the filly with T H Stable LLC of Wall, NJ and William Jones of Lexington, KY. “That, to me, was like a 1:53 mile. She was parked all the way, never saw the wood.”

A daughter of Camluck and Rye Hanover, Treat Me Good has a star-studded pedigree. Western Hanover daughter Rye Hanover earned $68,506 in her racing career and is a full sister to Rocknroll Hanover ($3,069,093), Red River Hanover ($1,394,626) and Ontario sire Rustler Hanover ($971,638) and a half sister to Royalflush Hanover ($2,182,205). Camluck has been a perennial leader on the North American pacing sires list since completing his $1 million racing career in 1992.

“She has about as good a pedigree as you can put on paper,” says Heffering. “We have loved her since day one. We liked her in the field as a yearling.

“She is a very solid filly, a good size, with a lot of width to her, lots of power,” he adds. “She is a very easy keeper, very efficient with her feed, she stays in good shape. She is great to work around, just one of those special ones. One of those good ones that know they are good.”

The Port Perry resident and his partners entrusted the filly’s early education to Sam De Pinto, who was based at the South Florida Training Center last winter, and Heffering says it did not take the veteran horseman long to join the Treat Me Good fan club.

“We didn’t bring her to Florida until January, but from day one, in Sam’s words, she was the best yearling he ever trained, colt or filly,” says Heffering. “And he’s had some nice horses, we bought Artesian off him.”

When she was ready to qualify Treat Me Good moved north to join the Brett Robinson stable and the Caledonia resident coached her through a pair of qualifying wins, on June 17 in 1:58.1 and July 3 in 1:56.3. In preparation for last week’s elimination the novice pacer made her racing debut in a non-winners of one race at Mohawk on July 10, where she finished second by a head in a 1:56.1 mile.

“We’ll have to see how she comes along. She’s still pretty green,” says Heffering. “She’s going to have to get better to go with some of those high flyers. We’ll have a better idea Monday night.”

Treat Me Good will face the tough Gold Final field from Post 1 on Monday evening. Regular reinsman Luc Ouellette will be in the race bike for the $130,000 contest, which sees elimination winner and world record holder Luck Of Michelle line up right beside them from Post 2, while the other elimination winner Canadette is handicapped by Post 9.

Post time at Mohawk Racetrack on Monday is 7:20 pm and the two-year-old pacing fillies will square off in Race 5.

For complete results please go to:

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/emohsmo.html#N5