Many would state that the 2018 crop of three-year-old trotting fillies is one of the deepest in recent memory. So to win a major race and defeat those fillies is no small feat.
Dismissed at 31-1, Lily Stride stepped up with the biggest effort of her career to capture the $500,000 Breeders Crown for sophomore trotting fillies.
Driver Tim Tetrick settled Lily Stride away in sixth while Plunge Blue Chip (Ake Svanstedt) parked favoured Atlanta (Scott Zeron) through a :26.4 opening quarter, before Atlanta cleared and faced immediate pressure from Manchego (Yannick Gingras). Those foes traded blows through a spicy :54.2 half and 1:23.4 third panel. Phaetosive (George Brennan) was poised on Manchego's back and tipped three-wide around the final turn with Lily Stride following that move as Manchego started to fade.
Heading for home, Atlanta looked to have enough separation on pocket-sitting Plunge Blue Chip and three-path Phaetosive. Supergirl Riley (Marcus Miller) was sitting in third along the rail behind Plunge Blue Chip, but she broke stride around the final turn. That break opened up the rail, and Tetrick angled Lily Stride from the outer flow to the passing lane.
As Atlanta approached the wire, Lily Stride continued to gain on the favourite and collared the leader just before the wire to get her head in front and trip the timer in 1:53.2. Plunge Blue Chip stayed for third.
The win over the sloppy surface did not surprise driver Tetrick, who said, “Ever since the first week of Lexington she’s really been charging. She got taken out in the (Kentucky) Futurity Final, or she would have been second or third, and last week came home in :27.1. I thought she was sitting on a good race. I’m really surprised she paid 31-1. They all went to the outside and we took a shortcut, which I have been doing with her the last few starts. The track is holding up really well. The footing is good.”
Owned by Emilio Rosati of Australia and Maria Rosati of Luddenham, S.C., Lily Stride (Muscle Hill - Stirling Volo) picked up her third win of the season and seventh lifetime. The winner's share of the purse more than doubles her seasonal bankroll, which now sits at $444,991. The win was, as a surprise to some, the first Breeders Crown win for trainer Mark Harder.
“The monkey off my back is great. You know, I am really happy to do it with this filly because the group she hit this year are great, great fillies. I thought I had a great, great filly until I qualified her and these other ones started showing up and they are vicious, they’re really tough.
"She’s going to go down under and the owners will race her down there, which will be, you know, a feather in their cap, to race a Breeders Crown winner.”
The Three-Year-Old Filly Trot was one of 12 lucrative finals on a star-studded 2018 Breeders Crown night at Pocono featuring most of harness racing's top participants. Read about the rest of the stakes action in the 2018 Breeders Crown News Centre.
(with quotes from Breeders Crown)