Longtime Scioto Downs trainer Jim Pollock Jr. knows a thing or two about good pacing fillies, and he’s ready for Diva to fill some big shoes.

Diva won the first race Thursday night at Scioto, a NW1 pace, in 1:56, with Ronnie Wrenn Jr. driving, in her second lifetime start. The three-year-old daughter of Sharky Spur out of the Jate Lobell mare Beam of Joy is a full sister to Idol, who holds the track record at Scioto for four-year-old mares. That 1:51.4 mark was taken in 2010 with driver Sam 'Chip' Noble III.

“It’s hard to compare one to her (Idol),” said Pollock. “She (Diva) has got a lot of the same traits, the same personality. As far as speed-wise, I don’t know yet, it’s pretty close but too early to tell.

During 2012, Idol’s last year of racing, the mare took to Scioto driver Kyle Ater and the pair had three wins, two seconds and a fourth, all in the Fillies & Mares Open. Being the first year an Ohio track was racing for added money from the VLT machines, the race was going for $15,000 each week (this year the Fillies & Mares Open goes for $20,000) and Idol earned a cool $29,700 in just seven starts.

Idol took her 1:50 lifetime mark as a four-year-old and has earned $293,135 in her four-year racing career (from age three to six). Her last start was in October 2012 and she is now in foal to Western Ideal.

“Their mother is at Hickory Lane Farm right now being bred to McArdle,” said Pollock. “We have an Im Gorgeous weanling that was born about six weeks ago...a filly.”

Diva and Idol’s half brother by Village Jolt, Baby Bubby, raced during the same card for Pollock and owner Stephen Richard, but the colts in the family just don’t produce results like the fillies. The five-year-old has earned over $60,000 and took his lifetime mark of 1:53.4 last year.

“It’s pretty much a filly family, the colts haven’t been real strong.

“They are a good three-year-old family. They’ve had issues with their knees being immature ...I qualified Idol as a two-year-old (in 2:01.1), but she wasn’t mature enough. The same way with her (Diva), I trained her in 2:25 as a two-year-old and then shut her down.”

Pollock plans to qualify another filly in the family, a two-year-old named Zena by Four Starzzz Shark, on Tuesday at Scioto. With any luck, Diva and this younger daughter will follow in their older sister’s footsteps.

(Scioto Downs)