With the 2008 O'Brien Awards less than two weeks away, the SC website will shine the spotlight on the finalists in each O'Brien division
.
Today we profile the three-year-old trotting filly division.
BELLA DOLCE - Bella Dolce had a rocky start to the 2008 season. The highly-regarded daughter of Kadabra - Pizza Dolce went winless in her first six starts of the campaign.
The slick-gaited filly returned to Canada in July and into the care of new trainer Kevin O'Reilly. The combination clicked and Bella Dolce immediately regained her winning ways, reeling off seven straight victories.
She swept the Canadian Breeders Elimination and the $191,206 Final on July 26 at Mohawk Racetrack and followed that up with a sweep of an Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Elimination and $120,000 Gold Final at Mohawk on August 8.
From there, it was another sweep of both her SBOA Stakes Elimination and the $201,300 Final on August 22 at Mohawk.
Bella Dolce capped off the seven-race win skein by capturing her $134,926 Simcoe Stakes division on September 4 at Mohawk in a lifetime-best clocking of 1:54.2.
The $431,336 in seasonal earnings boosted her career bankroll to just over $753,000.
LANTERN KRONOS - After winning only once at age two, the hulking filly burst onto the scene in 2008 and asserted herself as one of the top sophomore trotting fillies on the continent.
The Jimmy Takter-trained daughter of Viking Kronos - Bell Power started off her season by winning six straight races including a $75,000 division of the Casual Breeze Stakes as well as her elimination and the $588,706 Final of the Elegantimage Stakes - all at Mohawk Racetrack.
Two starts later, she trounced rivals by almost nine lengths in a $25,136 division of the Reynolds Stakes at Pocono Downs in 1:54.4.
She later went on to capture her $35,000 Hambletonian Oaks Elimination at The Meadowlands on July 26 and then finished a closing second in the $750,000 Final a week later.
Other major stakes victories included the $185,000 American National at Balmoral Park, the $166,000 Filly World Trotting Derby at DuQuoin and her $117,850 division of The Bluegrass Stakes at Lexington's Red Mile. In total, she racked up 12 wins and more than $920,000 in earnings for her connections, making her the richest three-year-old trotting filly in North America in 2008.