A total of 24 fillies battled in three $20,000 elimination divisions of the second leg of the Delaware Standardbred Breeders Fund Monday at Harrington Raceway.
The most anticipated showdown, was the latter of those divisions as round one winners Totally Rusty, owned by Carter Racing Stable, and Gigi Deo, owned by the partnership of Jerry Silva, C&G Racing Stables and Deo Volente Farms, were primed for a showdown after drawing into together in the program’s tenth race.
Totally Rusty, fresh off her track record-setting performance (1:54.1) in her division last week, emerged as a wire-to-wire winner for driver Corey Callahan and reset her track record with a 1:54 win over the track listed in ‘good’ condition. Gigi Deo rallied first over and finished second, three lengths in arrears of Totally Rusty.
Trained by Doug Lewis as the only foal of sire Rustys For Real, Totally Rusty improved to 4-for-4 lifetime.
One rival Totally Rusty has not faced yet but will next week is Joann Looney-King’s Purrfect Bags ($2.10, Victor Kirby), who dominated in her 1:55.4 triumph in another DSBF pacing filly division. The Roddys Bags Again filly never had an anxious moment in her front end romp to improve to 3-for-3 lifetime for trainer Jim King, Jr.
Tony Dinges’ Love Forbidden ($4.40, Andrew McCarthy) won the remaining division in 1:57.4. The Riggins-sired filly atoned for a third-place finish as the favourite in her division last week, with a first-over grinding narrow margin of victory over Spin Vision. Trained by Dinges, it was the first win in two career starts for Love Forbidden.
The top eight point earners will return to compete in the $100,000 final next Monday October 20.
(Harrington Raceway)