by Greg Blanchard (WEG Media)

Campbellville, On – For trainer Glenn Lalonde, it is difficult to contain the excitement he feels heading into Saturday night’s C$379,000 Roses Are Red Stakes Final for older pacing mares at Mohawk.

A victory would be the biggest of his career and he is supremely confident that he has the horse to get him there in Four Starzz Meliss, a mare owned by his wife Jennifer along with John Nother of Brampton, Ontario.

“I’ve always thought that she is just an exceptional horse,” said Lalonde. “She is the best right now that she has been since I’ve had her.”

That is saying a lot considering the 6-year-old Cambest mare has won six of 16 starts since moving into Lalonde’s care in September of last season – all of those wins coming at the Preferred or Open level.

Her most recent victory came in last weekend’s C$50,000 elimination. She stopped the clock in 1:50.3 with a gritty first-over effort, despite the fact she had missed almost a full month of action prior to the race.

“She had some issues that we wanted to take care of,” admitted Lalonde.

“It turned out that she had an abscess on her ovaries. In fact, the vet said it was one of the biggest he’s ever seen (about 60 grams). So, we gave her time and had to get her into heat so her body could naturally release it.

“While we had her off, I also put her on lasix because she has bled a bit in some of her other starts. We also took off the shadow roll because she had a tendency to try and look over it. It all worked out as you could see in her elimination. She was very strong and Luc (Ouellette) didn’t even pull the plugs on her.”

As good as her effort was last weekend, Four Starzz Meliss was a full second slower than the other elimination winner Moving Pictures, who equaled the track record for older mares with a 1:49.3 clocking.

Moving Pictures and world champion Darlins Delight are both intimidating presences in Saturday’s rich final, but Lalonde would not trade horses with anyone at this point.

“No one scares me. I think she is as good as any of them,” said Lalonde.

“It is a great field and it’s going to be one heck of a race. I just hope my mare is first over at the top of the stretch. If she’s close, I like her chances.

“Even though she’s won so many Opens here, she just doesn’t seem to get the credit that some of the others do. Maybe this will be her time in the spotlight.”

Last week’s elimination winners got to choose their posts for the final and Moving Pictures and Four Starzz Meliss will start beside each other on the gate from posts three and four respectively.

The Roses Are Red Final is slated as race eight on the 13-race program which also features the C$354,000 Armbro Flight Final for older trotting mares and the first leg of the Summertime Series for 3-year-old colt pacers. First post on Saturday night is 7:20 p.m.