Honorable Daughter, who was last season’s Dan Patch Award-winning two-year-old filly trotter, will miss

the $600,000 Elegantimage Stakes at Mohawk Racetrack. Three eliminations will be contested Friday.

“She has a little bit of a foot problem,” trainer Larry Remmen said. “It’s nothing serious, but if we’re not on all cylinders, we’re not going to compete. We want to be at our best.”

Last year, Honorable Daughter won nine of 11 races, including the Breeders Crown and Merrie Annabelle, and earned $835,555. She also became the fastest two-year-old filly trotter in history on a five-eighths-mile track with a 1:55.1 victory in the Matron Stakes final at Dover Downs and was recognized by the U.S. Harness Writers Association as the best in her class.

Honorable Daughter is two-for-two this year, having swept the Empire Breeders Classic at Vernon Downs in New York. Upcoming races for three-year-old filly trotters at the Meadowlands Racetrack, where Remmen is stabled, include the Coaching Club Oaks on July 3, the Delvin Miller Memorial on July 17, and the Hambletonian Oaks on August 8.

“Right now, we’re undecided [about her schedule],” Remmen said. “We should be ready [by the Delvin Miller]. Otherwise, she’s feeling great.”

Honorable Daughter is owned by Paolo Rosanelli, who owns a machine shop, and John Siena, who runs a bakery with his brother-in-law. Both Rosanelli and Siena, who have owned horses together for more than a dozen years, live in Middletown, New York. Honorable Daughter (Malabar Man-Honorable Mother) was purchased for $32,000 as a yearling at the Lexington Selected Sale.

There will be no shortage of talent in the Elegantimage three $35,000 elimination races on Friday. Last week’s winner of a division of the Casual Breeze stakes, Yursa Hanover, is one of the favoured fillies for the Elegantimage, having drawn the plum post position two in the second of the three splits (Race 3, post time 8:10 p.m.). Yursa Hanover, by Windsongs Legacy, was second to Honorable Daughter in the 2008 Breeders Crown, and seems primed for an impressive three-year-old campaign for trainer Normand Bardier Jr., who has taken over from Ben Baillargeon this spring. She’s been rated at 6-5 in the morning line.

Two-year-old stars, Raising Rachel and Windsong Soprano, will face off in the first Elegantimage elim on Friday (Race 1, post time 7:30 p.m.). So far this season, Raising Rachel has given every indication that she intends to pick up where she left off last fall, with seven wins in eight starts: she is undefeated in two starts in 2009, including a decisive victory in last week’s Casual Breeze. Windsong Soprano is also two-for-two this year, and captured her division of the Casual Breeze on June 12. This will be the first match-up for these two trotting lasses this year.

In the third Elegantimage split (Race 4, post time 8:30 p.m.), look for OSS Superfinals winner, Elusive Desire, who’ll take on Kandor Hanover, who was unraced at two but has already made 18 starts as a three-year-old, including a sweep of the Celias Counsel series at Woodbine in April. Elusive Desire, by contrast, made her first start as a sophomore in late May and has yet to visit the winner’s circle, but she may find her groove this Friday. The pair will go behind the gate side by side, in post positions four and five in the eight-filly field.

The Elegantimage eliminations are just the lead-off for another star-studded weekend at Mohawk, including eliminations for the Goodtimes Stakes (for three-year-old trotting colts), the Fan Hanover (for sophomore trotting fillies) and the $1.5 million Pepsi North America Cup (for three-year-old pacing colts), all on Saturday night. The $600,000 (est.) final of the Elegantimage will go postward on North America Cup night, Saturday, June 27.

To view Friday's entries, click here.

(With files from HRC and WEG)