by Ashley Mayotte, WEG communications

Campbellville, ON — The Rick Zeron-trained Lady Rainbow made her first 2011 appearance under cool, damp conditions at Mohawk Racetrack’s qualifiers on Monday morning (May 16).

As a 2-year-old, Lady Rainbow fashioned a record of 4-1-2 in nine starts, banking $209,633 in seasonal earnings. Her stakes wins included the Bluegrass and International Stallion Stakes at The Red Mile.

Zeron was impressed with his sophomore filly’s first qualifying effort of the season.

“She qualified very well,” he said. “We’ve trained her around four times, around two minutes and she’s been very consistent for me.
I’ve been very happy with her training back.”

Lady Rainbow won her qualifier in 1:57.3 by 2-3/4 lengths.

“She left the gate out of the one hole this morning, got away third. She was very comfortable in there. I moved her out and we hit the head of the stretch, one of the drivers inside hit a wheel disk and she heard that and just took off,” said the Oakville resident.

In 2010, the daughter of Muscles Yankee-Sunshinenlollipops had a few breaks on her charted lines, a problem Zeron says he has fixed.

“She trots without knee boots now,” he stated. “That was her biggest problem last year, she was touching her inside knee and making a break. That won’t happen this year.”

Zeron doesn’t plan on qualifying his bay filly a second time, but he will school her a couple of times before she is entered in to race.

“We’ll get her ready for the Casual Breeze on June 3,” said Zeron.

Pepsi North America Cup eligible, Mystician, made his second qualifying appearance Monday morning. The son of Camluck-Mystic Mistress had a stellar freshman campaign with a record of 5-4-0 in 12 starts and seasonal earnings of $780,312. Mystician’s stakes wins included the $960,000 Metro Pace and a pair of O.S.S. Gold finals.

Driver Jody Jamieson and the 3-year-old colt went gate-to-wire through fractions of :28.2, :58.4, 1:27.2 and 1:54.2. The Jeff Gillis trainee beat the other N.A. Cup eligible in the field, Arsenal, by 2-1/2 lengths.

Gillis feels more optimistic this week than he did after Mystician’s May 5 qualifier.

“We think we are on the right track. He scoped with a bit of mucous last week. I wouldn’t have called him sick, but he was less then 100 percent.

“To be honest, it is a tough day to judge speed. There has been a lot of rain and it’s been a cool, blustery morning,” explained the Hillsburgh resident. “I guess I am happy based on how poorly he qualified the first time.”

Gillis plans to enter Mystician at Georgian Downs for the Upper Canada Cup eliminations on Saturday, May 21.

Other qualifying winners included: Kandor Hanover-1:57.3; Day To Ponder-1:56.2; Undercover Strike-2:00; Art Z-1:58; Windsong Soprano-1:57; and Bolero Charles-1:54.

Mohawk’s Summer qualifying schedule

As Mohawk Racetrack gets set to kick off its Summer meet on Thursday, May 19, the Woodbine Entertainment Group would like to inform all horsepeople and fans of the changes to the summer qualifying schedule.

Qualifiers on Mondays and Thursdays will remain unchanged for the rest of May, with the exception of Tuesday, May 31, which is when qualifiers will return to a Tuesday and Friday schedule.

The week of the Pepsi North America Cup (June 12-18) will be the only time when the schedule will differ. Qualifiers will then be held on Monday and Thursday with 2-year-old qualifiers Friday morning.

The 2-year-old qualifiers will be conducted on Saturday mornings starting on June 4. Hot dogs will be served on those mornings. Customers are asked to make a donation to A Spring Of Hope.

Here is a look at the complete Mohawk summer qualifying schedule until the end of July:

Two-year-old qualifying schedule:

Saturday, June 4
Saturday, June 11
Friday, June 17
Saturday, June 25
Saturday, July 2

Remaining qualifying schedule for May 2011:

Monday: May 23
Tuesday: May 31
Thursday: May 19, 26

Complete qualifying schedule for June 2011:

Monday: June 13
Tuesday: June 7, 21, 28
Thursday: June 16
Friday: June 3, 10, 17, 24
Saturday: June 4, 11, 25

Complete qualifying schedule for July 2011:

Tuesday: July 5, 12, 19, 26
Friday: July 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
Saturday: July 2