Jersey Bulldog never saw a pylon and never relented in a hearty 1:49.4 score to snag the $510,000 Grade 1 Shes A Great Lady final, for two-year-old pacing fillies, on Saturday, Sept. 26 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Driver Bob McClure hustled Jersey Bulldog towards the fore out of post nine but stalled briefly and rolled three-wide through the first turn before taking back off an early battle between Money Carlo (Jody Jamieson) and Qued Up (Yannick Gingras) to a :27 first quarter. Qued Up inched past Money Carlo in the backstretch as Twin B Mayreau (Louis-Philippe Roy) gathered momentum out of third to rush up and take control just before a :54.2 half. 

Jersey Bulldog marched uncovered through the last turn and steadily gained on Twin B Mayreau to three-quarters in 1:22.3 before hitting her best stride in the stretch. While Twin B Mayreau extended stubbornly for the line, Jersey Bulldog clawed to the lead and downed Twin B Mayreau at the beam by a half-length to seize the win. Waves Of Fortune (James MacDonald), the 4-5 favourite, kicked from a second-over trip for third.

“I really thought she was as good as anything in there,” said McClure, winning for the second time in the Shes A Great Lady after taking the 2022 edition with Sylvia Hanover. “So I pressed the pedal down leaving and she was actually going right to the front. She was crossing over, and she just must have touched herself somewhere and put a bad step. After that, 11 horses, horses are getting parked, I could have got her in, but we'd have been out right away again. So I decided to just put the bit in her mouth and let her ride. When I called on her at the head of the lane, she gave me everything she had. I'm very proud of her.”

Trainer John Pentland, who celebrated another Grade 1 victory earlier in the week when Redland Rocket Man won the Little Brown Jug, won the Shes A Great Lady for the first time. A filly by Bulldog Hanover-Gallie Beach, Jersey Bulldog won for the fifth time from 10 starts and has now banked $461,720 for owners Pentland and Sherri Sumner of Dorchester, Ont., Jack Darling Stables Ltd. of Cambridge, Ont. and Alan Alber of Thornhill, Ont. 

“I'm beside myself, man,” Pentland said. “When she looked like she was going to clear and everyone shut her out, and for her to lay out there, parked like that, and win this race in [1:]49… I've had a good horse lately (in Redland Rocket Man), and he's gone some big trips, but I don't know if that guy's gone as big a trip as this girl just did.

“I couldn't believe at the tote board there we still had a chance to win this. I never made a noise. My crew and I were standing there watching the race. You couldn't hear us at all, we were just kind of like, 'are you going to hang on, honey? Are you going to get us paid at all?' And when she won the race, it was like 'this is one of the most outstanding efforts I've ever seen in a horse. Period.'”

Sent off as the second choice in the betting, Jersey Bulldog paid $11.30 to win.

(Woodbine)