by Karen Briggs/WEG Media

Campbellville, ON — Between Bella Dolce and Feels Like Magic, trainer Kevin O’Reilly has a pretty good chance of finding himself in the Mohawk winner’s circle at the conclusion of the first of four Canadian Breeders’ Championship contests, the C$191,206 final for 3-year-old trotting fillies (race #4, post time 8:38 p.m.).

2007 O’Brien finalist, Bella Dolce, won her CBC elimination last week by two lengths in the fastest clocking of the eliminations – 1:55.1. The Kadabra filly looks to be returning to her freshman form under the guidance of O’Reilly, who took charge of her education at the beginning of July when the filly was shipped north from ‘Nifty’ Norman’s barn in the US.

“She tore a muscle in her back earlier this spring,” O’Reilly explains. “We have no idea how she did it – maybe just playing out in the field – but it was understandably sore and she couldn’t use herself 100%. Nifty’s put a lot of work into getting it healed, with massage and all sorts of other therapies. The best thing for it would have been to give her a couple of months off, but that’s hard to do in the middle of a three-year-old stakes season.

“I give full credit to the filly; she has been competing with this injury and has been really trying. Fortunately it’s much better now. I was really happy with her on the elimination night, and I think she’s in good shape now for the final.”

Feels Like Magic was also an elimination winner, scoring by a length in a new career clocking of 1:56.1. Another daughter of Kadabra, she has two wins and two seconds to her credit in four starts this season, with career earnings of $131,413.

O’Reilly is very positive about Feels Like Magic, calling her short on mileage but long on talent. “She’s not as handy as Bella Dolce, but she’s just as fast,” he says. “Put them in a match race and you really couldn’t separate them. She just was never taught to leave at the gate, but she can close. We’re working on the gate speed.

“I’d like to have her around for four and five, so anything we get this year is a bonus,” he adds.

O’Reilly’s double entry will no doubt be formidable on Saturday, but Bob McIntosh trainee, Pasadena Princess, should not be discounted. Unraced at two, this daughter of Berndt Hanover is co-owned by McIntosh and the C S X Stables of Liberty Center, Ohio, and has already racked up six wins and two seconds in 10 starts as a sophomore. She scooted home in her elimination last week some 4-1/4 lengths ahead of her nearest rival, Appleby Hall, and is the 5-1 third choice in the division for trotting lasses.

The C$168,551 CBC Final for 3-year-old pacing fillies (race #5, post time 8:59 p.m.) also promises to be an exciting match-up, with Im Just Special aiming to lengthen her win streak to four for trainer Tom Artandi and owners Theodore and Susan Colby of Bronxville, NY. The daughter of Camluck didn’t seem all that special as a 2-year-old, earning just $17,931 with one win and a second in eight starts, but she is living up to her name at three, with 2008 earnings of nearly $170,000.

The Canadian Breeders’ Championship divisions for 3-year-old trotting colts will be taking to the track right after the fillies, in race #6, and pacing colts will be featured in race #7.