Southwind Chaska brings a three-race winning spell to her Breeders Crown elimination, the first of two $34,250 splits for freshman trotting fillies on Friday, Oct. 17 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Two starts ago, she captured a division of the Bluegrass Stakes at The Red Mile in 1:51.4, making her the fastest rookie trotting filly this season. That clocking is tied for the fifth fastest by a two-year-old female trotter in history.

Southwind Chaska is the 2-1 second choice in her elimination. She will leave from post three with Tim Tetrick driving for trainer Jim Oscarsson, whose Oscarsson Racing Stable Inc. of Delray Beach, Fla. co-owns the filly with John Cummins of Lexington, Ky. The daughter of Tactical Landing-Southwind Chai has hit the board in all eight of her races this season, with six victories, and she has banked $327,299.

“She’s done a good job this year,” Oscarsson said. “When I started to train her in Florida, she was nice. She never did anything wrong; she just followed everybody and did her work. It’s the same now when she trains, she just does whatever we ask. But she’s a different horse when she races. She’s a little lazy when I train her, but when she comes up behind the gate, she’s a real racehorse.”

Southwind Chaska is a head from being undefeated in her past five starts dating back to Aug. 29. After a second-place finish in the New Jersey Classic on Sept. 5 at The Meadowlands, she won a division of the Kindergarten Classic Series at The Big M followed by two triumphs at The Red Mile. She captured her Bluegrass start in 1:51.4 and a week later scored in 1:52.1 in a division of the International Stallion Stakes.

“Both races (at The Red Mile) were very good,” Oscarsson said. “I was impressed. I didn’t know if she would go so fast two weeks in a row. But she did it, and afterwards, she was great. She’s a strong horse.”

Southwind Chaska was purchased for $20,270 at the 2024 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale.

“I like Tactical Landing, and she had Chapter Seven (as the sire of) the dam,” Oscarsson said. “She was not so big, but she looked strong. Everything looked good with her, in my opinion. I liked her from the first time I saw her.”

Oscarsson drove Southwind Chaska in her only qualifier, in June, and then handed the lines to Tetrick for her races.

“Tim liked her directly,” Oscarsson said. “I’m happy. He’s handled her very well and taken care of her, nice trips and everything.

“I think she has a good mentality. She knows what to do and she likes to race. Tim can do whatever he wants with her. If you go behind a helmet, she can go very fast when she comes out; she likes that. But she is a complete horse, she can go anywhere.”

Twenty rookie trotting fillies were entered in the Breeders Crown, and 19 will compete in the eliminations, with the top four finishers from each elim plus the fifth-place finisher with the highest earnings as calculated by Standardbred Canada advancing to join Atlantic Summer in the final. Atlantic Summer, as the winner of the Jim Doherty Memorial (Grade 1), went directly to the final.

To view Friday's harness racing entries, click the following link: Friday Entries - Woodbine Mohawk Park // Program Pages (courtesy TrackIT).

(Hambletonian Society; photo of Southwind Chaska winning on Sept. 26)