Grand River: Love That Smile tallies in Battle of the Belles final

Love That Smile showed that her track record-equaling mile in her elimination a week ago was no accident, as she was a decisive winner in the C$145,060 Battle of the Belles final for 2-year-old Ontario-sired pacing fillies on Monday afternoon at Grand River Raceway.

Driven by Louis-Philippe Roy, Love That Smile got away fifth from post one and vacated the cones going to the 27 3/5 opening quarter. She was initially three-wide to get around a parked Cheryls Shadow (James MacDonald), but cleared her readily and then marched towards the front, taking command away from Warrawee Xpat (Jody Jamieson) on the second turn.

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From there, Love That Smile hit the half in 57 3/5 and 1:26, turned away a tepid first-over bid by Speak Your Mind (Tyler Moore), and accelerated through the stretch en route to winning by 2 1/4 lengths in 1:54 4/5. Big Bettor Hanover (Bob McClure) rallied after taking a shuffle on the inside to finish second, and Warrawee Xpat wound up third. Cheryls Shadow and Darby Ogill (Sylvain Filion) rounded out the top five.

"For now, the little filly, I don't think she has the gate speed yet. Maybe she'll develop that asset, but just making the front off the gate wasn't an option," remarked Roy. "After that, what was the option was just to make sure I wasn't going to get in trouble. She proved last week she was really tough. When I saw Jody taking a little bit of a breather up front, I said I'll come quick here, and that's my chance to make the lead and then control the race. That's what she did.

"I didn't really ask her. I just let her do her thing, and down the lane I was just looking and making sure that nobody was going to come and surprise her. Definitely she was feeling good, all the credit to (trainer) Rene Bourassa's team."

Bourassa also co-owns Love That Smile, a daughter of Sportswriter-Smileallthewayhome, with partners M&S Racing Stable Inc., Gilles Caouette, and Marc Gelinas. Love That Smile, who has a trio of wins and a second from five trips behind the gate and a bankroll of C$98,013, was bred by William MacKay, David Serwatuk, and Robin Watts. She was the 4-5 choice and paid $3.60 to win.