Volstarita is the real deal

When the freshman harness racing filly Volstarita (Volstead) trotted to a 17-length triumph in her two-year-old debut at Lebanon, KY on May 25, her performance turned a lot of heads, not the least of which was her driver-trainer, Ronnie Gillespie.

“She could have went more,” Ronnie said of the filly’s 2:00.3 clocking. “I didn’t realize she was going that fast because she was going around the turns as smooth as a pacer does. She really showed me that day that she knew what she was bred to do.”

In that race, Volstarita was ahead of her rivals by ten lengths at the 30:1 quarter, trotting her second quarter in 31:2 (1:01.3), with a :29.4 third quarter clocking (1:31.2), with her final panel timed in :29.1.

Foaled May 9, 2022, at Cynthina, KY, Volstarita was bred by Euro Stall SE and is owned by M3 Racing Stable of Berlin, Ohio–purchased for $55,000 at the Ohio Selected Jug Sale on Sept. 15, 2023. She is the first foal out of the unraced Muscle Hill 3, 1:50.1 ($3,273,342) mare Southwind Magic, who is a half-sister to A New Leader (by Trixton) 4, 1:53.4 ($93,491).

Volstarita’s second dam is Miss Directed 4, 1:56.3f ($77,306), a daughter of Kadabra,4, 1:51.3 ($1,806,779) out of the Lindy Lane 3, 1:53 ($895,110) mare Clasicaly Designed 3, 1:56.2s ($79,349).

Though her debut, shortly after her 2-year-old birthday (May 9, 2022) in that $9,000 Kentucky Proud Trotting Series division was impressive, Gillespie said she did not begin her training in that fashion.

“I broke her initially and she was really laid back and kind of lazy; she did everything right but had no interest in what she was doing,” Ronnie offered.

“I train by myself a lot usually until they get older, and I once started training her with other horses, that’s when she started waking up. I had her behind some horses and when I pulled her that first time training, she just wanted to go after them.”

“This filly is built like another filly I drove and trained down early last year—Sugar Instead (Volstead)—who won $372,925 and took a mark of 1:52.4f at Scioto Downs,” Ronnie said. “Volstarita is not really big but is racy looking—kind of medium sized. When I first watched her sale video, I didn’t think she would do well because she never bent her knees. Then, when we started jogging her and training her, I had another guy sit behind her, and she eventually began picking her knees up a bit and started looking more and more like a race filly.”

“She’s eligible to both the Ohio and Kentucky sire’s stakes programs,” Ronnie acknowledged. “She’ll go first to Oak Grove in June and then to the Ohio Sires Stakes after that. We’re done taking her to the fairs.”

by Kimberly Rinker, for Harnesslink