from the Ontario Sires Stakes

Dundas, ON — After making waves in open stakes action in recent weeks, the 2-year-old trotting fillies returned to Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Series competition at Flamboro Downs on Tuesday (Sept. 25) for the second to last event of the regular season.

Blue Magic captured the first $74,228 division, rocketing away from post four and playing catch me if you can with the field of eight. On top by 3-1/2 lengths at the :27.4 quarter, driver Louis Philippe Roy kept his foot on the accelerator to the :57.1 half and the 1:27 three-quarters. Pocket-sitter Witches N Angels started to close on Blue Magic around the final turn and looked like she would storm by the pacesetter in the lane, but Blue Magic dug in for a neck victory in a personal best 1:59.4. Fan favorite Teddys Littleangel was eight lengths back in third.

“I don’t know much about the filly, I sat behind her only twice, but she’s well-gaited and goes around turns perfectly. She likes the half-mile track,” said Roy. “Most of the time I drive for Susie Kerwood and Rene Dion I’m happily surprised with the result.”

Susie Kerwood trains Blue Magic for Tommy Andersson. The win was the Kadabra-Blue Muscles daughter’s second this season (she was also victorious in the Aug. 7 Grassroots event at Woodbine Mohawk Park) and boosted her earnings to $52,490. With one regular season event remaining, Blue Magic sits in tenth spot in the division standings with 53 points, 50 more than she had on Tuesday morning. The top 10 point earners advance to the season ending Super Final.

Tommi Canu Hearme also bolstered her point total with a 2:01.2 win in the second $74,228 division. Starting from post eight, driver Chris Christoforou dropped the filly into fourth on the rail as Petro Hall rolled out to a :29.4 quarter and a :59.4 half, opening up a six length lead on the field of eight. Heading for the 1:29.3 three-quarters pocket-sitter Champagne Jane and Tommi Canu Hearme started to narrow Petro Hall’s lead and the fillies turned for home ready to battle. Champagne Jane attacked on the outside and Christoforou sent Tommi Canu Hearme up the inside and on to the one length victory. Petro Hall hung on for second and Champagne Jane was third.

“Chris is so good, he’s just so calm out there. He just got her away out of the eight-hole into the four-hole and then went up the passing lane,” said trainer Dustin Jones. “It worked out good, because we needed a win for points.”

Tommi Canu Hearme won her Champlain Stakes division at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Aug. 30, but before Tuesday she had not enjoyed much luck in the Gold Series, finishing fifth in the first two legs and eighth in the third.

“What happened was, she had two fifths and then she had the rail and made a break, and then I qualified her with the trotting hobbles,” explained Jones. “I should have probably had the trotting hobbles on her sooner, but she just kept showing that she could go good without them and I just figured that she would get going, but then it was getting too late in the year. We couldn’t take any more chances.”

Jones shares ownership of Tommi Canu Hearme with Hebert Horses Inc. and Sjoblom Stable. Jones went to last year’s London Selected Yearling Sale specifically to purchase the daughter of Royalty For Life and Tommi My Girl and has never regretted that decision.

“I went back on the Sunday and I waited all day to buy her because she was (hip number) 300 and something,” recalled Jones. “I was hoping to buy her for around $35,000 and somebody was bidding against me $1,000 a shot up until $41,000. Forty-one thousand was my last bid, and I was stretching myself then, but then I ended up selling pieces of her after.

“She trained great all winter, she was my best trotting filly all winter, my best trotter actually I thought, the one that had the most speed,” he added. “I’m pretty proud of that little trotter.”

With 61 points Tommi Canu Hearme currently sits eighth in the division standings and will be looking to add to that in the regular season finale on Oct. 4 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.