REXDALE, ON — Ontario’s talented three-year-old trotting fillies return to Woodbine Racetrack on Monday evening for their $130,000 Gold Final and $30,000 Gold Consolation.
Elimination winners Early Secret and Symphony Hanover will be looking for their first Gold Final win, while defending champion Dietrich attempts to rede
em herself after a lacklustre fifth-place finish in the elimination round. Symphony Hanover clocked the fastest elimination victory, hitting the wire one and three-quarter lengths ahead of her peers in 1:56.3. The Balanced Image daughter and trainer-driver Rick Zeron will attempt to score their third straight win from Post 9 on Monday and Zeron says Symphony Hanover is the type of filly that can overcome the outside post position.
“She can get off the gate good so we’ll just have to speak to her a little more,” says Zeron. “And she’s always got two good moves for me, so we’ll just hope that things work out.”
Dream With Me Stable of Caledon East owns the filly, who has recorded two wins and one second since joining Zeron’s stable in mid-June.
“She is a very nice filly, a very sensible Balanced Image filly who does everything right,” says the Oakville resident. “She can leave, or sit in a hole and come back out. She does everything the right way.”
In the season opening Gold Final it was Early Secret who had to overcome Post 9 and trainer Paul Walker was pleased to see her draw the more advantageous Post 5 for Monday’s $130,000 showdown. Early Secret logged a one and a half length 1:56.4 victory in her elimination and Walker expects her to be even sharper this week.
“She is the kind of filly when she races two or three times in a row she gets sharper every time,” says the Owen Sound resident. “She wasn’t eligible to the Elegantimage so we used the break to give her some time off. She was in the paddock for a week and a half so she was maybe a little flat at Flamboro, but I think it will pay off over the long haul.”
Early Secret finished second to Symphony Hanover in a July 5 Flamboro Breeders event, but Walker felt the filly was not on her game that evening due to her month-long holiday and a touch of throat infection. He addressed the throat infection before last Monday’s Elimination and was not surprised when she delivered her third victory.
“I thought our mare was a little bit flat at Flamboro. I was surprised that other mare caught her in the lane,” says the trotting specialist. “We treated her for a little bit of a throat infection and hoped she would brighten up, and she did.
“She looks good right now. I hope she can stay with them all year. I don’t think she can beat them every time, but some night she might get a break and win a Gold Final.”
The elimination winners will be keeping their eyes on reigning Gold champ Dietrich from Post 7 and both men point out that any one of the 10 contestants in Monday’s event are capable of making an appearance in the winner’s circle.
In addition to the Gold Final, seven of the fillies that failed to reach the top five in the elimination round will compete in the Gold Series Consolation. The Consolation will go postward at 7:40 pm as Race 1 with the Gold Final slated as Race 4 on Woodbine Racetrack’s Monday evening program.