Milton, ON — Not many trainers want a dead head but that’s what Nick Gallucci was hoping for it at the conclusion of the single Simcoe Stakes division for three-year-old pacing fillies on Saturday at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Silver Label (James MacDonald) and Velvet Stinger (Louis Philippe-Roy), both trained by Gallucci, finished inches apart at the wire of Stouffville, Ontario. She is the first foal of the C$258,000 winning mare Our Hot Majorette who was a fixture on the WEG circuit during her career.

Velvet Stinger (Bettor’s Delight-Our Hot Majorette) started out this year in the Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots program but has moved up into the Gold lately and earned a win in that exclusive club at Rideau Carleton in late August.

“Initially I was just hoping she’d be a decent Grassrooter but every week she just gets better and better. If she gets a target she’s going to keep digging. Silver sometimes on a lead, she can get a little bit weak like that. She did look a little vulnerable before the wire.”

The two fillies are now scheduled to start in the next Gold event, September 26 at Mohawk, and Gallucci hopes to have their O’Brien Award winning stablemate Prohibition Legal, who has been off since early July, entered as well.

He may be hoping for a rare triple dead head if the trio draw in together.