Bee A Magician Is Back

After having been away from the charter’s eye for roughly four months, four-time O’Brien Award winner Bee A Magician took to the track for a qualifying mile on Tuesday (October 4). The winner of $3.96-million in career purses did not disappoint.

The Kadabra filly is three for three in pari-mutuel races this season, even though she was forced to take her unexpected hiatus from the betting public. Bee A Magician’s trainer, Richard ‘Nifty’ Norman, told Trot Insider last month that the six-year-old mare had suffered a soft-tissue injury while in the paddock. One of Bee A Magician’s co-owners, Mel Hartman, has said that the connections have been very careful bringing her back.

The careful approach appeared to pay off in her qualifying win on Tuesday.

Bee A Magician took to the track for the fifth race during Harrah’s Philadelphia’s qualifying session. Pilot Victor Kirby was up behind the talented mare and lined up in Post 4.

Kirby left decently off the starting gate was able to tuck into the garden spot, as Ladys Dude (driven by Matt Kakaley) made the front and proceeded to trot to the opening station in a tepid :29.4.

Ladys Dude picked up the tempo a tad in the second quarter (:28.4), as the gelding rolled down to the half-mile marker in :58.3. Ladys Dude then trotted a rather pedestrian third quarter (:29.1). All the while, Bee A Magician drafted in second.

After having been towed into the stretch, Kirby called on Bee A Magician, and the duo employed a :27.3 closing quarter en-route to a quarter-length score in 1:55.3.

From 68 career starts, Bee A Magician has compiled a record of 44 wins, 12 second-place finishes and three third-place efforts. She is just $36,605 away from hitting the $4-million plateau in career purse earnings. Her mark of 1:51 was taken over the Meadowlands Racetrack as a three-year-old.

Bee A Magician is owned by Mel Hartman (of Ottawa, Ont.), Herb Liverman (Miami Beach, FL) and David McDuffee (Delray Beach, FL).