CAMPBELLVILLE, ON — The trailer leaving John Bax’s Peterborough farm on Monday, May 20 will be a full one as the trainer sends a trio of talented trotting fillies to Mohawk Racetrack for Gold Series action.
Elimination winner Pepi Lavec and third-place finisher Natashas Kiss will start in the first Gold Final of their three-year-old season, while fourth-placed Gramolas Image lines up in the first of 16 Gold Series Consolations the Woodbine Entertainment Group will host.
“I was very pleased with all three of them. They all raced well in the elimination,” says Bax. “It’s always nice to go to the track and think that you’ve got a shot to finish in the top three.”
Based on her easy 2:01.2 victory in the Elimination round Bax and his partner Glengate Farms of Campbellville are hoping for more than just top three for Pepi Lavec, but the veteran trainer knows the competition will be stiff in Monday’s $130,000 contest.
“There are always new ones coming along. The two Walker’s fillies looked really good, they look like they are ready to step up,” he says. “You just hope that yours improve as well.”
The other two Eliminations went to fillies trained by brothers Larry and Paul Walker. Larry Walker’s Taste Test romped to a 2:01.2 win for the Springs Eternal Stable of Sutton West and she is well positioned for a solid Gold Final effort from Post 1 on Monday.
On the other side of the track, at Post 9, Paul Walker trainee Early Secret will attempt to replicate the wire-to-wire 2:01.4 effort she delivered out of the eight-hole in the Elimination round. William Loyens of London and Malcolm MacPhail of Dover Centre own Early Secret, who was the 2001 Grassroots Champion.
Bax’s fillies will start from mid-field, Pepi Lavec at Post 5 and Natashas Kiss from Post 7, which the trainer feels are almost the perfect posts for the talented pair.
“I like it when they are a bit out. They both have enough gate speed that they can usually make their own race,” says the 2001 O’Brien award winner as the nation’s top trainer. “There is a fine line between being tight and being too keen and I am hoping that they are a little more mature this year and easier to handle.”
At this stage in the season Bax believes that Pepi Lavec is the better filly of the two, but he adds that Natashas Kiss developed nicely over the winter and may be ready to challenge her stablemate for top honours in the division.
“I think Pepi has always been one step better than Natashas Kiss. Pepi’s got that grit and that desire; you can’t teach that, they either have it or they don’t,” he explains. “But Natashas Kiss has grown a little bigger and a little stronger so she has the potential to go that next step.”
Al Libfeld of Pickering, Marvin Katz of Toronto and Sam Goldband of Toronto share ownership on Natashas Kiss and they also co-own the third filly Bax will harness on Monday with Glengate Farms.
Gramolas Image finished fourth in her Elimination and did not draw into the Gold Final so the Balanced Image daughter will start in the $30,000 Gold Series Consolation instead. The Consolations are an experimental effort between the Ontario Sires Stakes and Woodbine Entertainment Group and will occur after all 16 of the Gold events held at Mohawk and Woodbine this season.
Gramolas Image will start from Post 9 in the second race on Mohawk’s 7:40 pm program against eight other fillies who did not earn a berth into the Gold Final. The top three finishers from each Elimination, plus one fourth-place finisher, will compete for the $130,000 Gold Final purse and Super Final points in Race 4.