Trainer Don Swick could fall in love with this “Sweetheart.”
Special Sweetheart, a three-year-old filly pacer, will start from post No. 6 in Saturday’s $175,000 Thomas D’Altrui Miss New Jersey at the Meadowlands. She has won three of six races this year and earned $52,475. She has won six times in her career, banking $217,761. Last season, she was second to Hawaiian Drink in the Three Diamonds at Woodbine Racetrack. She is coming off a third-place finish in her Miss New Jersey elimination race, which was won by Dawn’s Legacy in 1:52.1.
“She’s got a really efficient gait; she doesn’t waste any motion,” Swick said. “Everything is forward with her. She’s willing to go; she’s not a horse you have to make do anything. That’s a lot from a filly.”
Special Sweetheart, by Western Ideal, is a half sister to Ontario star Im Just Special, who earned $448,150 last year. Her mother, Ladys Special Girl, was second to Sure Sign in the 2002 New Jersey Sire Stakes final for two-year-old filly pacers. Special Sweetheart was seventh in the New Jersey Sire Stakes final for three-year-olds on May 30, after battling to the front from Post 10 in a :55.1-second opening half-mile.
“She strikes me as a one-big-strong-move type horse. I think having to cut a mile out from the 10-hole might have been just too much for her,” Swick said. “She’s not necessarily a horse that needs a good trip, just a horse that maybe needs a half-mile of fight and not a whole mile of it.”
Showherthemoney won the other Miss New Jersey elim in 1:52.2.
Here is the field in post position order, with listed drivers and trainers:
1. McGibson, T. Tetrick, L. Toscano
2. Showherthemoney, B. Sears, B. Noren
3. Personal Ad, J. Morrill Jr., R. Croghan
4. U Foria BB, D. Dube, A. Glide
5. Scarlet McZara, A. Miller, B. Dalious
6. Special Sweetheart, E. Goodell, D. Swick
7. Arbeedo, A. McCarthy, R. Norman
8. Precious Stone, D. Palone, R. Norman
9. Perfectionist, T. Tetrick, J. Takter
10. Dawns Legacy, G. Brennan, A. Mannino.
(Harness Racing Communications)