CLINTON, ON — Ontario’s two-year-old trotting fillies have already lowered one track record in Grassroots action this season and the talented youngsters will take aim on Clinton Raceway’s longest standing speed mark this Sunday, Sept. 2.
Budd Thorne trained track record holder CL Brightness through her 1998 freshman campaign, and the August afternoon when she circled Clinton’s half-mile oval in 2:02.2 still stands out in his memory. Not only did CL Brightness annihilate the competition by a 14 length margin, his second stringer Abba Daba Chin recorded her first lifetime victory in another Grassroots division.
On Sunday Thorne will start a daughter of Abba Daba Chin’s in the fourth $17,161 Grassroots division, but the Fergus resident does not expect lightning to strike him twice.
“I wish that Rockin Royal was like CL Brightness,” says the horseman. “CL Brightness was a tough filly. She was hard on herself, she would have made more money if she had behaved herself, but that day she set the track record there, that was a good mile. It was a pretty good mile for a two-year-old, for any trotter over that track.”
CL Brightness would go on to win $342,401 in her two-year racing career, before being exported to Italy. Stablemate Abba Daba Chin earned $118,673 in her two and three-year-old seasons before becoming a broodmare, and Rockin Royal is the fourth foal Thorne and his partner Robert Rombough of Mississauga have raised.
“She’s a nice big filly,” says Thorne. “She’s got some brains, which her mother did not have. She’s just learning to race and she’s getting better with every start.”
Thorne qualified Rockin Royal at Grand River Raceway on July 30 before sending her into the Grassroots fray at Dresden Raceway on Aug. 6. The Royal Strength daughter started from Post 6 and finished seventh in her racing debut, then followed it up with a fourth-place effort in an Aug. 18 overnight at Woodstock Raceway.
In the Aug. 25 Grassroots at Sudbury Downs, Rockin Royal drew the trailing Post 9 and delivered another fourth-place finish in the fastest mile clocked over the sloppy half-mile oval.
Rockin Royal and driver Jim McClure will attempt to improve on that start from Post 6 in Sunday’s fourth race, and while Thorne would prefer to see the filly line up a little closer to the rail, he is still hopeful that she will come up with a solid effort.
“I was hoping for a little better post Sunday,” admits the horseman. “But I’m hopeful that she’ll still be a little better again.”
Thorne expects Rockin Royal will be at her best as a three-year-old, but he also hopes that the slow and steady approach he has adopted will see the filly reach a high enough level of performance this year to land her in the Grassroots post season.
“I hope she’ll peak at the right time,” notes the horseman, “Get some points accumulated to get into the Semifinal, and take off from there.”
Among the fillies that Rockin Royal and McClure will face on Sunday are three fillies who currently sit among the top 16 point earners. Ena Jane is tied for tenth and will start from the advantageous Post 2, Taylorlane Evita sits third in the standings and will start from Post 3 in the fourth race, and Debt Reduction is in second with 87 points and will start from Post 5.
Post time for Clinton Raceway’s Grassroots laden matinee is 1:30 pm. The two-year-old trotting fillies will take aim on CL Brightness’s track record from Races 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 9.
For complete entries please go to:
http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/eclntnsu.html