Coming off a record-setting performance in the season opener, Ontario’s top two-year-old trotting fillies make their second Gold Series start at Mohawk Racetrack on Monday evening.

Sooner Than Later earned the victor’s crown in the July 20 Gold final at Grand River Raceway, equalling the 2:00.4 track record set by elimination winner Wilsonator the week before. Back to defend her title from Post 2 in the second $40,000 Gold elimination on Monday, Sooner Than Later will face just 26 challengers compared to the 41 fillies that made the trip to the Elora, Ont. oval.

Among the fillies hoping to give Sooner Than Later and Acton, Ont. resident Trevor Ritchie a run for their money is Warrawee Lassie, which will line up beside the reigning champion at Post 3 in the third race. Warrawee Lassie and Oakville, Ont. resident Rick Zeron head into their second Gold elimination off a pair of solid victories at Mohawk in the In Free Trotting Series.

“She did quite well, but she hasn’t really been tested yet,” says breeder Dr. Michael Wilson of Rockwood, Ont. who shares ownership on Warrawee Lassie with trainer Frank O’Reilly of Orton, Ont. and brothers John and Jim Fielding of Toronto. “I think she’s got quite a bit more in her.”

After a pair of strong qualifiers prior to the Ontario Sires Stakes season opener, Wilson and his partners were disappointed when Warrawee Lassie made a break in her July 13 Gold elimination at Grand River and finished out of the money. However, the daughter of Kadabra restored their initial optimism with a 2:02 victory in the first leg of the In Free Series, and gave it another boost with her 2:01.4 triumph in the second leg on July 26.

“Apparently she’s a very easy filly to work with, very willing, does whatever you ask,” notes Wilson. “Frank O’Reilly will tell you that Rick Zeron thinks she’s a better filly than Cumin First, but time will tell.”

O’Reilly trainee Cumin First captured two Gold finals as a two-year-old and has banked $285,700 in her career to date, so Warrawee Lassie is a long way from challenging her stablemate for top earner status, but Wilson thinks the filly could be the standout he has been waiting for broodmare Independent Lassie to produce.

Wilson owns both Independent Lassie, the sophomore Grassroots champion in 1999, and her half-sister Independent Dame, and the long time breeder is confident one or the other has the potential to produce a superstar.

“One of either her or Dame are going to produce a really nice horse,” Wilson muses. “And I think (Warrawee) Lassie might be a nice horse.”

Warrawee Lassie was so striking as a youngster that Wilson decided early to keep her as a future addition to his broodmare band, but when O’Reilly caught sight of the filly as a yearling, he convinced the breeder to part with three-quarters of his ownership interest.

“Frank came to look at my usual yearlings and said, ‘Who is that over there?’” recalls Wilson. “I purposely hadn’t shown her to him. Once he saw her, he wanted to buy her, so I sold her and kept a quarter.”

The partnership is off to a positive start with Warrawee Lassie sporting two wins and $20,000 from her first three starts. The young trotter will be looking for a top three finish in elimination action on Monday to land a spot in the $130,000 Gold final on August 10. The top three finishers from each elimination, plus one fourth-place finisher drawn by lot, will return to Mohawk for the second Gold final of the season.

The two-year-old trotting fillies will kick off Mohawk Racetrack’s Monday evening program in the 7:20 p.m. first race and also wage their Gold elimination battles in Races 3 and 7.

(courtesy Standardbred Canada & OSS)