by Jeff Renton, media/communications, Woodbine Entertainment Group

Toronto, ON — Coming off a career year in the training ranks, Paula Wellwood hasn’t wasted any time getting back into the swing of things.

The 41-year-old conditioner has three trotters (Southwind Rome, Wide Angle Hanover and Gettindownanddirty) in to contest Woodbine’s C$50,000 second leg of the Glorys Comet Series, set for Sunday (Jan. 14) afternoon at the Toronto oval.

The Glorys Comet, formerly known as the Horsemen’s Trot, is a three-week series for trotters four years of age and older.

The C$93,000 (estimated) final of the Glorys Comet is scheduled for January 21.

In the Glorys Comet opener on January 7, Wellwood’s trio provided the conditioner with a wide array of performances — something she took the time to touch on with www.WoodbineEntertainment.com.

Southwind Rome

This 5-year-old son of Muscles Yankee was making the jump in class heading into the Glorys Comet and was sent away at odds of 19-1 in the opening leg. After starting from post four, driver Mario Baillargeon settled the Wellwood Stables Inc.-owned gelding into seventh, where he would sit through the opening quarter (:26.3) and half (:56.1). The career winner of seven races was on the move off of the final turn, but made a break before the head of the stretch and was subsequently distanced.

“His cover wasn’t going enough for him,” said Wellwood. “Mario went to pull him out three-wide in the turn and he is such a big horse that he can’t handle that. We even have a lot of trouble with him here at our little (training) track and I have to go slow with him. There’s nothing wrong with him — he still had a lot of trot, but it was just the trip. He just has some trouble when he’s in traffic. You have to quickly jerk him (out into the flow) and it’s all because he is so big.”

In regards to the class jump into the Glory’s Comet, Wellwood explained: “Originally, I wasn’t going to race him in this series, but I thought ‘what the heck?’ It was really just the circumstances and he came out of (the first leg) really good, so I put him back in (for the second round).”

Wide Angle Hanover

Like Southwind Rome, Wide Angle Hanover is a gelded son of Muscles Yankee, just two years older at seven. The career winner of 14 races and over $311,000 in purses had won two of his last three starts at Woodbine’s Preferred level before heading into the opening leg of the Glorys Comet.

In the tilt, Wide Angle Hanover left hard from post eight with driver Jody Jamieson and recorded a wire-to-wire, quarter-length victory in 1:54 flat. Even though the performance itself was enough to turn some heads, it was his erratic behavior beforehand which took a lot of attention away.

“He has to deal with some mental issues — which we all know — but he’s good,” said Wellwood, who saw her pupil get quite fractious in the post parade Sunday and go back to the paddock area before heading back out for his race. “He ran away. We have to change the post parade procedure with him. He has always had a few mental issues and we’ll change things up a little with him this week. He’ll have the pony a little bit more and hopefully he’ll be a little quieter.”

What is even more surprising with Wide Angle Hanover’s performance is that he hadn’t raced in three weeks.

“Coming in after having three weeks off he was pretty pumped up, but he still went a phenomenal trip, especially with everything that went on. Given the circumstances, he did things in that race that horses don’t do. He’s come out of the race fine and sharp, I just hope he behaves himself better. He’s a hard horse to handle and Jody deserves a medal.”

Gettindownanddirty

In the opening leg, 5-year-old Self Possessed gelding Gettindownanddirty was part of an entry with Wide Angle Hanover, but unlike his stablemate he had no luck, finishing fifth, beaten 3-3/4 lengths after closing with a respectable :27.4 final quarter speed.

According to Wellwood, the 11-time career winner may not be racing this weekend.

“He has been sick all week and there’s a chance he won’t race,” said Wellwood. “I jogged him this (Thursday) morning. He was definitely better, but we have to re-pull his blood and everything. If I’m not going to race him, he’ll be out by scratch time (Friday morning). He scoped sick (after the race) and the next morning he was terrible.”

“He’s definitely sharper and better than he was, but I don’t know if he’s better enough (to race), and I’m not going to know for sure until I pull another blood.”

Thoughts on 2006

Without saying, 2006 was a banner campaign for Wellwood. Laddie won multiple stakes and over $384,000 in purses before being voted WEG’s 2-Year-Old Trotting Colt of the Year, but he wasn’t the only charge in the Wellwood arsenal.

Overall, Wellwood’s pupils logged 110 races and recorded 37 wins, 23 seconds and 10 thirds. Her charges earned more than $1.1 million in purses on the season and she sported a universal trainer rating of .483.

“The year was phenomenal and I don’t think I can ever repeat it,” said Wellwood. “I couldn’t have had anything go better all year long. I do have some nice horses, but it was just something I don’t think I can repeat — it was like a dream come true.

“I have great help here and we all put in a lot of hard work. We had patience and persevered. There was a lot of waiting on horses and by all means we didn’t race week in and week out. With these three horses in particular, we didn’t race them overly hard at two and three and now it’s paying off because they are turning into some nice Open-class horses.”

The two second leg divisions of the Glorys Comet are listed below.

Division #1 — Race #2 (1:40 p.m.)
Head # – Horse – Post Position – Listed Driver – Trainer
1 – Southwind Rome – pp1 – TBA – P. Wellwood
1A – Wide Angle Hanover – pp6 – J. Jamieson – P. Wellwood
2 – Valvec – pp2 – Ph. Hudon – R. Fellows
3 – Armbro Approach – pp3 – J. Moiseyev – G. Maltby
4 – Texas Photo – pp4 – R. Zeron – K. Klages
5 – Abbey Road C – pp5 – K. Jones – K. Jones
6 – Adam T – pp7 – K. Oliver – D. O’Brian
7 – Alpha Entura – pp8 – J. Jamieson – J. Gillis

Note: All horses will be racing from the Retention Barn.

Division #2 — Race #4 (2:20 p.m.)
Head # – Horse – Post Position – Listed Driver – Trainer
1 – Dink Adoo – L. Ouellette – A. Haughan
2 – Stiletto – R. Zeron – A. Montini
3 – Reve D Amerik – M. Baillargeon – B. Baillargeon
4 – Armbro Chronicle – M. Saftic – K. Baker
5 – Y Chance It – P. MacDonell – R. O’Neill
6 – Gettindownanddirty – P. MacDonell – P. Wellwood
7 – Self Righteous – C. Christoforou – T. O’Sullivan

Note: All horses will be racing from the Retention Barn.