As Ramona Hill returns home for the first time as reigning Hambletonian champion, one thing is certain. She has, in no way, lived up to her namesake. Well, half of her namesake, at least.

Coming off a win in the August 8 Hambletonian at the Meadowlands Racetrack in which she equalled her sire Muscle Hill’s stakes mark of 1:50.1, Ramona Hill will start from Post 1 in Friday’s $160,140 Harry M. Zweig Memorial for three-year-old trotting fillies. The race will be contested at Vernon Downs in Vernon, NY, just 30 minutes from where the filly was bred at Crawford Farms in Cazenovia.

Ramona Hill, out of the mare Lock Down Lindy, has won nine of 11 career races and was the 2019 Dan Patch Award winner for best two-year-old filly trotter in the United States.

And while she is following in the hoofprints of other successful Muscle Hill-sired horses, she is a far cry from the 'Ramona' part of her name. That comes from the 2010 children’s movie, 'Ramona and Beezus.' The two girls were sisters, with Ramona being the problematic sibling.

The choosing of the name by owner/breeder Michelle Crawford was purely random.

“A lot of my names are from wherever I am at that moment or wherever I’m travelling,” Crawford said. “Three years ago my son would have been seven putting me through all these shows and movies I had to watch. I have a lot of babies to name. I must have been watching Ramona and Beezus that day and that’s when I came up with Ramona Hill, when I had to come up with the name. There’s no correlation whatsoever, it was just a random name that came out of the clear blue sky, it must have been on TV.

“(Husband) Al said ‘Where did Ramona come from?’ I said, ‘You told me you liked names.’ A lot of horse names are quotes or sayings and he really hates that. So I was trying to do my best to throw names on everybody. It’s not always easy to get them through the USTA so you have to throw something on the end. You can’t just get away with a Ramona so I added Hill.”

Fortunately, Ramona Hill has been the complete opposite of Beezus’ little sister.

“She’s that little girl with the bowl cut, the choppy bangs, and she found trouble wherever she went,” Crawford said. “She’s just a total troublemaker. (Ramona Hill) did not live up to her name and we’re real happy about that.”

Ramona Hill, trained by Tony Alagna and driven by Andy McCarthy, gave the Crawfords their second filly Hambo winner in three years. This was the first they bred, however, which provided further validation that Michelle and Al are doing things right.

“We’ve worked so hard to get the barn to a point where we could possibly produce something this great,” Crawford said. “Then to have it be a filly that goes out and wins the Hambo and we bred her; it was pure elation just because of how far we’ve come with the farm.”

It became a passion that consumed them.

“We had to study, it was like a job,” Crawford said. “You had to learn and you had to learn a lot. It was a very concerted effort. I literally left my position as VP of our company to become the CEO of Crawford Farms and build our brand. I didn’t necessarily know that much about pedigrees. We had to learn it the hard way.

“So just to see something you worked hard at and to know somebody believed in her. Tony believed in her, the partners that bought into her believed in her at the auction and said ‘We’re going to take a chance on her and buy her.’ To find out she’s going to win the Hambo and be a Dan Patch winner, it’s like, wow, I don’t know what else to say.”

That’s not exactly true, as Michelle always has plenty of good stuff to say.

She obviously looks forward to watching her champion in person for a second consecutive race. Adding to the excitement is that Ramona Hill will be going against Sorella, bred by Elmer Fannin and owned by Elmer, Crawford Farms Racing and Brent Fannin.

Two races prior to Ramona Hill’s Hambletonian victory, Sorella captured the Hambletonian Oaks. Sorella, trained by Nancy Takter, will start the five-horse Zweig from Post 3. With the filly’s regular driver, Yannick Gingras, in Canada, Dexter Dunn gets the call. Sorella is 8-5 on the morning line, second choice behind 3-2 Ramona Hill.

“We bought into Sorella as a yearling,” Crawford said. “We were excited because it was a really nice family out of Kadealia and we were looking for broodmares at that point. It was definitely something we looked at hard, decided to take half of her at that point and couldn’t be happier that we did.

“Nancy has done a fabulous job with her. At one point we were thinking of her going into the Hambo, too. It ended up with Nancy just settling on the Hambo Oaks and that was a good spot for her and she did everything she could.”

When reminded she would have only had one champion had Sorella gone into the Hambo, Crawford was quick to note that played no part in the decision.

“That sounds a little selfish,” she said. “That wasn’t really the determining factor. I think if they pushed and Nancy really thought she could do it, they would have put her in the Hambo. I like to defer to the trainer. The trainer knows best.

“Plus, Yannick wouldn’t have been driving her. She would have lost her driver. That would be a major concern for us. I didn’t want to throw a new driver on her for this. He knows her, he loves her, I wasn’t going to compromise that. Elmer and Brent felt the same way. Nancy ultimately has the final blessing. That’s what I love about the partnerships. They’re always on the same page.”

The only problem in the Zweig, the Crawfords now have two horses trying to knock each other off.

“I don’t love it, but it is what it is,” Crawford said. “It’s still going to be a really difficult race, I think they’re all in top shape right now.

“I have the utmost faith in Ramona, but you never know. They could always bounce. She’s in form and I know she came out of it really well. Tony said she’s on her feet, she’s feeling good, in the spa, life is good. She’s just feeling like Ramona, and I’m going to take that to mean that she’s ready.”

As for Sorella?

“I haven’t talked to Nancy too much this week but think Sorella came out of it fine; she’s ready too,” Crawford said. “I think Sorella looked as good as she could have looked last week, too. That was beyond exciting watching her win the Oaks and then moving on to Ramona. Talk about girl power!”

Vernon's Friday card also includes the $330,000 Zweig Memorial Open for three-year-old trotters. Hambletonian runner-up Ready For Moni is the 9-5 favourite in a field of nine colts and geldings. First-race post time will be at 3 p.m. (EDT).

(USTA)