Lather Up, 2018 Pepsi North America Cup winner and runner-up to Dorsoduro Hanover in the Breeders Crown, led a star-studded qualifying card on Tuesday morning (April 16) at Harrah's Philadelphia with an easy 1:53.4 win.
In his second qualifier since an eighth-place finish in last year's Matron, the four-year-old son of Im Gorgeous rated a :58 first half before displaying a powerful turn of foot up the backstretch, posting a :27.2 third sectional before being taken in hand by Montrell Teague through a :28.2 final quarter, 1-3/4 lengths in advance of New York Sire Stakes champion Rockapelo (Tim Tetrick). Clyde Francis trains 15-time winner Lather Up, whose three-year-old seasion also included victory in the Ohio Sires Stakes final and a third-place finish in the Little Brown Jug, for Gary and Barbara Iles.
In the day's most impressive trotting effort, millionaire Crystal Fashion and Tim Tetrick sustained a wide bid from fourth up the backstretch and through the far turn en route to a 1:57.1 qualifying win, 8-1/4 lengths better than Signal Hill. Last year, the four-year-old Cantab Hall gelding took top honours in the Earl Beal Memorial and the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championship before capping his season with a runner-up finish to Six Pack in the Kentucky Futurity and a third-place finish to Tactical Landing in the Breeders Crown. Jim Campbell trains Crystal Fashion for Fashion Farms LLC.
Among the top performances from three-year-olds, dual-eligible Bettors Wish, who was the runner-up in last year's Battle of Waterloo and Ontario Super Final, vaulted home from the pocket in the final eighth of his qualifier, drafting behind Sweet Lullaby through splits of :28.1, :57.2 and 1:25.2 before pulling pocket off the home turn and accelerating to a 3-1/4 length win in 1:53.3. Dexter Dunn drove the three-year-old son of Bettors Delight for trainer Chris Ryder. Bettors Wish has been assessed odds of 22-1 in the 2019 TROT Magazine Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book.
Sophomore pacing filly Zero Tolerance made her first appearance since a game second-place effort behind Prescient Beauty in last year's Three Diamonds a winning one, rating splits of :29.1, :58.4 and 1:27 before scooting 7-1/2 lengths clear of Sun Viser in 1:55.1. Regular driver David Miller, who drove the daughter of Heston Blue Chip to a second-place finish behind Warrawee Ubeaut in last year's Breeders Crown along with wins in the Bluegrass, Reynolds and Geers Stakes, was aboard for trainer Joe Holloway.