Priceless, Indiana’s top two-year-old pacing filly of 2020, is back on track in Indiana.

The Rockin Image filly spent 100 days turned out in warmer weather, spending the winter in Hawkinsville, Ga. After coming back and starting out the year under trainer Jeff Edwards at the Hawkinsville Training Center, Priceless shipped home to Indiana April 10 and is now back in Indiana with trainer-driver Brandon Bates to polish off her training and get ready for her sophomore season.

“She (Priceless) is training back excellent,” said Bates. “She has grown taller and added some muscle.”

Priceless won seven of her 11 starts last season, banked in excess of $347,000 in purses, and took her mark of 1:50.2 at Woodbine Mohawk Park for owners Kevin Miller and Bert Hochsprung of Illinois. After having won her elimination (replay below), Priceless capped off her 2019 season with a start in the prestigious Breeders Crown at Mohawk.

Priceless has been staked heavily in 2020, and, pending the return of live racing, her first start could be at the end of May when the Indiana Sires Stakes is scheduled to kick off. However, the sires stakes date might be moved back, pending the official start of the season at Harrah’s Hoosier Park. After the first ISS leg, the next stakes engagement on Priceless’ agenda is the Fan Hanover at Mohawk, which is currently scheduled for mid-June.

If all goes according to plan, Priceless could rack up some major miles in the trailer this year. Other stakes on her schedule for 2020 include the Max Hempt at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, the Mistletoe Shalee at the Meadowlands Racetrack, The Horseman at the Indiana State Fair, the Bluegrass at the Red Mile, and the Breeders Crown, which will be returning to Harrah’s Hoosier Park in October.

Priceless, pictured at the wire in her Breeders Crown elimination at Woodbine Mohawk Park in the fall of 2019.

Priceless is currently training at Bates’ home base in Warren, Ind., which is north of Hoosier Park, approximately 50 minutes just off Interstate 69. The training facility includes a half-mile training track and two barns with seven paddocks for turnouts. Bates currently has two horses in his barn right now: Priceless and the two-year-old Rockin Image filly Phelgon. Bates is planning on adding head to his operation when Hoosier Park racing officially opens, which will come after state regulations pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic are lifted.

Priceless, pictured with her connections after her victory in the 2019 Breeders Crown eliminations at Mohawk.

Priceless and Phelgon are under the care of Bates’ groom, John Dolenski, and the fillies are expected to make a strong ‘one-two’ punch for the Indiana stable in 2020.

(Indiana Standardbred Association)