On Wednesday, July 14 Grand River Raceway will host its second Ontario Sires Stakes event of the week, as the two-year-old trotting fillies kick off their Grassroots season with three $24,000 divisions
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Enchantment will make her first lifetime start from Post 7 in the first division, and trainer William Companion hopes the Angus Hall miss takes to racing as effortlessly as she has mastered everything else.
“She’s been a real joy, right off the bat,” says the Rockwood, ON resident, who shares ownership on the filly with KOR Stable Limited of Guelph, ON. “She’s been a pleasure to go with.”
After a winter spent teaching the willing youngster her lessons, Companion qualified Enchantment at Mohawk Racetrack on June 25 and the novice trotter toured the seven-eighths mile oval in 2:04.4, finishing fourth. Randy Waples steered the filly in her qualifier and Companion says the veteran reinsman delivered the perfect outcome.
“Randy drove her perfect, I told him to go around 2:05 and he went in 2:04.4,” explains the trainer. “I’ve trained her much faster since then.”
To polish off the filly’s preparations for her Ontario Sires Stakes debut, Companion intends to train her over the Grand River surface this weekend, giving her a look at the half-mile track and its environs without the race night hubbub.
“I’ll go a slow mile in 2:20 with her. She should be fine,” says Companion.
“She’s really steady on her feet,” he adds. “I shouldn’t say that, but so far she’s been steady on her feet.”
Looking ahead at Wednesday’s race, Companion expects Enchantment to get away in the middle of the eight-horse field, and hopes she can mind her manners and be part of the sprint to the wire.
“You know two or three of them are going to run into the first turn. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it won’t be her,” says the horseman. “I think she’ll get away fourth or fifth, then we’ll see what she does after that.”
Companion acquired the filly from last fall’s Harrisburg yearling sale, and was delighted when bidding stopped at $20,000 on the well-bred, well conformed youngster after watching another filly he liked sell for more than three times that amount the day before.
“My wife and I were getting ready to leave and she said, ‘The filly’s coming up.’ I said, ‘Well, we’ll stay and watch’,” recalls the horseman. “I started bidding at $12,000 and it stopped at $20,000. I liked her conformation, and the look of her eye — she has a real beautiful eye.”
Enchantment is the fifth foal from Madam Super Bowl, a half-sister to $531,258 winner Bold Dreamer. A standout producer, Bold Dreamer’s offspring include former Ontario Sires Stakes star Was It A Dream ($824,457) and the $1.7 million winner Pampered Princess.
Enchantment and her Grassroots peers will compete in Races 3, 7 and 9 on Grand River Raceway’s Wednesday evening program, which gets under way at 7:15 p.m.
To view Wednesday's entries, click here.
(OSS)