She was an unbroken three-year-old that went on to become a regional award winner as an aged performer. Now, Flashy Image, who has a tight relationship with the man that broke her, is baffling her connections with uncharacteristic breaks leading up to what could prove to be her richest payday to date
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A former Ontario track announcer once told Trot Insider that 'there is a story in every stall' --- something which, after some pondering, is undeniable. The connections of Flashy Image, owner/breeder Wilfred Smith, Calvin Smith, Wayne Court and trainer Stacey Lund, probably just wish the curious story of their Nikes Image trotter wasn't manifesting itself at all, especially leading up to the biggest week of racing on Prince Edward Island.
Old Home Week is just days away from hitting its crescendo. This Saturday night, Sobey's Gold Cup & Saucer Night at Red Shores' Charlottetown Driving Park will turn the atmosphere on the apron and inside the grandstand electric, as it always does. On the track, Court, Lund and the Smiths just hope their charge directs her spark to the task at hand, the $6,100 final of the Meridian Trotting Series (Race 2), and not the lightning rod which has been grounding her back to one of her earliest stumbling blocks.
"I think we have a good shot in there as long as she behaves," Lund told Trot Insider about Flashy Image (PP4, Gary Chappell), who has recently regressed back to making early breaks. "Because of her recent behaviour, we were this close to not being able to race Saturday night at all."
Co-sponsored by Meridian Farms and Standardbred Canada, the Meridian Trotting Series --- a multi-legged event for aged mares that are Canadian-sired and/or 100 per cent Canadian owned --- has seen some seasoned distaffers put their best hooves forward leading up to Saturday's finale. Although the story of Flashy Image's early breaks have risen to the fore as of late, the story of the bay mare is not just all about inopportune running. There is no need to explain the bond between equine and human, but the relationship between Court and Flashy Image apparently runs pretty deep.
Court told Trot Insider that, prior to 2009, he had driven some horses and had what many might consider fledgling experience with horses before his neighbours, the Smiths, asking him if he would help them catch and break one of the fillies in their field.
"It was right before Old Home Week three years ago," Court said. "I started going over in the evenings and on the weekends."
"Wayne was the one that broke her," Lund told Trot Insider. "They have really developed a great bond and she likes anything that has to do with him. If Wayne puts the harness on her, she immediately wants him to give her some scratches, but she is not like that with anyone else. The two of them together is really something to see. They've both taught each other a lot."
"When I started going miles with her at Wilfred Smith's farm, she always stayed on the trot," Court said. "After having trained her down, she qualified well and won her first lifetime start. The track was off for her second start. She hadn't raced with boots or anything like that, but we had put bandages on her back legs just in case she touched them. Unfortunately, the bandages ended up slipping down over her ankles in that race and she broke."
Ask any conditioner of the diagonal-gaiters, it is common for trotters to break stride. It just comes with the territory. But, according to Court, Flashy Image's miscue that day was not just an insignificant event. He believes that the mare has never let go of the incident. It appears to have laid dormant in the mare's psyche for a long time, but you don't have to scan too far down the mare's chartlines to see a recent regression back to that early skip.
"We think her early breaking is all tied to that initial instance," Court told Trot Insider. "Besides a brief period early on where she made some early breaks she has been fine, until lately. We recently made a shoeing change and put on a Murphy Blind (bridle), but we don't think her recent running has anything to do with that. We think it is just something in her head."
For a mare which got a late start in the racing game, Flashy Image has done her best to rise to the top. The lass has gone postward 52 times and has recorded 12 wins, nine second-place finishes and nine third-place efforts. In March of 2010, Flashy Image was honoured at the annual Prince Edward Island Standardbred Horseowners Association awards dinner, where her connections accepted the PEISHOA Aged Trotting Mare of the Year award on her behalf.
Flashy Image has drawn a decent starting spot for Saturday's final of the Meridian Trotting Series. According to Lund, if the mare tries to make up for her recent miscues, she could be a tough customer when the going gets tough.
"If you look at her performance two races back, she made a break off the gate," Lund said. "Gary (driver Gary Chappell) was telling me that in her last race (a wire-to-wire victory in a life's best 2:01) it was like she was trying to make amends. He told me that it was like she knew that she had screwed up before. Gary said that even though she went down to the three quarters in (1:) 29 and a piece she still wanted to go more. I just hope she realizes that Saturday is a big night and she stays on her best behaviour."
"It's hard to believe where we are after where we started from," said Court, who opted to underplay his connection with the trotting mare while in discussion with Trot Insider.
"He spoils her rotten," said Lund, who spilled the proverbial beans. "She's really well-behaved in the barn and is a really nice mare to be around. She never does anything bad, but she's a real individual. Some days she decides that she wants to be professional and some days she decides to be the exact opposite. That's her just being 'Flashy.'"
To view Saturday night's harness racing entries at the Charlottetown Driving Park, click the following link: Saturday - CDP (Night Card).