Filion seeks Wellwood Memorial title with improving Lookslikeachpndale

by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Ken Weingartner

Freehold, NJ — Lookslikeachpndale strutted winning form for the first time when he captured his elimination for Saturday’s C$390,000 William Wellwood Memorial for 2-year-old male trotters at Mohawk Racetrack and driver Sylvain Filion thinks the colt can show even more.

Trained by Luc Blais, Lookslikeachpndale starts Saturday’s final from post two, one spot inside of last week’s other Wellwood elimination winner, Uncle Lasse. The Wellwood is part of a stakes-filled card that also features the C$682,000 Canadian Trotting Classic for 3-year-old trotters, C$409,000 Elegantimage for 3-year-old female trotters, and C$385,000 Peaceful Way for 2-year-old female trotters.

Lookslikeachpndale has one win in five starts, but came into the Wellwood elims off two consecutive third-place finishes after twice finishing off the board.

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Lookslikeachpndale won his Wellwood elimination by a head over Jetpedia in 1:56.2.

“He’s been improving a lot of late,” Filion said. “I feel he is still not the horse we think he’ll become. He was pretty good last week and I think he is going to get better and better. There’s still lots more to him than there is right now. He’s still green. He doesn’t really know what he’s doing out there right now. That’s why I think with a few more races he’ll get better. He’ll probably get the hang of it.”

A son of 2009 Horse of the Year Muscle Hill out of the stakes-winning mare Poster Pin Up, Lookslikeachpndale was purchased for $185,000 at the Standardbred Horse Sale and is owned by Serge Godin’s Determination stable. The colt’s second dam is stakes-winner Poster Princess and his third dam is Me Maggie, who was the 1990 Dan Patch Award winner for best 3-year-old filly trotter and is a half-sister to Lawn Tennis, the mother of standout racehorse and sire Credit Winner.

Me Maggie’s offspring include Prime Mistress, the dam of stakes winners The Chancellor and Beer Summit, not to mention grandmother of this year’s Hambletonian Oaks winner, Lifetime Pursuit.

“He’s got a great family,” Filion said. “He’s got all the credentials for him. I know he will only get better, so that’s pretty interesting.”

Lookslikeachpndale won his Wellwood elimination by a head over Jetpedia in 1:56.2. Uncle Lasse, who is a full brother to Shake It Cerry, the 2013 Dan Patch Award winner for best 2-year-old female trotter, won his division by 1-1/4 lengths over Habitat in 1:54.4.

Filion also has drives in the Canadian Trotting Classic, Elegantimage and Peaceful Way.

In the Canadian Trotting Classic, Filion will sit behind Harper Blue Chip. The Mark Steacy-trained colt has won four of 10 races this year and earned $335,320. He finished third in both the Hambletonian and Goodtimes stakes, both won by CTC contender Trixton.

Harper Blue Chip will start from post two. Trixton, trained and driven by Jimmy Takter, leaves from post five while his stablemate, Father Patrick, is in post six.

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Sylvain Filion will drive Harper Blue Chip in the Canadian Trotting Classic.

“He’s been drawing real bad all year and he finally gets a good post,” Filion said. “But we’ve got a tough bunch of horses to race against. He’s very good right now. I’m hoping for a good, close-to-the-front trip and hopefully some top horses won’t be on their game, because we’ll need a lot of luck to beat those horses. It’s a very high-quality group.”

Filion will drive Designed To Be in the Elegantimage, starting from the second tier in post 11. Trained by Julie Miller, Designed To Be has won three of eight races, never finished worse than third, and earned $366,299 this year. Filion has driven the filly once previously, winning the Simcoe Stakes on Aug. 29 at Mohawk.

Designed To Be enters the Elegantimage off a second-place finish to Lifetime Pursuit in the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championship at Harrah’s Philadelphia last weekend.

“I was really impressed with her when I drove her,” Filion said. “They told me to be careful behind the gate, which I did; maybe I was a little bit extra careful. She’s got a huge engine and she can go all day. I watched her race (last week) and she raced huge. She was parked out the whole mile.

“My only concern is she’s going to be trailing (a horse at the start), but I guess that’s better than drawing the 10 hole. I feel confident with her. I think she can overcome that. If everything goes well, there’s no problem, but you’re following someone leaving the gate and a lot of things can happen. That’s my only concern.”

Million-dollar-earner Shake It Cerry, trained by Takter and driven by Ron Pierce, leaves from post seven in the Elegantimage. She enters the race off a victory in the filly division of the Zweig Memorial on Aug. 29 at Vernon Downs and has eight wins in 10 starts this season.

In the Peaceful Way, Filion drives Dynamite Dame, who earlier this year won a division of the Tompkins-Geers at Tioga Downs. Trained by Nifty Norman, she will start from post seven. Elimination winners Jolene Jolene and Mission Brief start from posts three and five, respectively.

“She’s a nice filly,” Filion said. “She tries hard. She might not have the talent that the best ones have in there. But with racing luck we can go a long ways.”