After finishing second to Jolene Jolene and Mission Brief in back-to-back world-record miles, Gold Cora’s connections might wonder ‘who will it be this time?’
“I hope if anybody it would be us,” trainer Rich Gillock said, with a laugh. “It seems we’re getting good at getting into those kinds of races. That’s pretty tough sledding.
“But I’m not complaining. I’m happy to be second in those kinds of races.”
Gold Cora races Thursday in the second of four Historic-Acorn Stakes for two-year-old female trotters at Harrah’s Philadelphia. She will start from Post 1 with driver Tim Tetrick and is the 8-5 morning line favourite.
A daughter of Encore Encore out of the mare Striking Gold K, Gold Cora has won three of 11 races and $94,098 for breeder/owner Bob Key. Gillock trained both of Gold Cora’s parents and Tetrick drove Encore Encore, who won a division of the Bluegrass Stakes and finished second to Federal Flex in the 2008 Valley Victory.
“This filly has come along and she’s been improving as the year progresses,” Gillock said. “Hopefully we can get a piece of the pie every time and it will add up.”
Gold Cora went off stride in consecutive starts in August, but since then has been a steady performer.
“I had to regroup with her and rig her a little differently,” Gillock said. “She had a few little issues going on, just little things that were factors, and we got them squared away.”
Gold Cora has two wins, two seconds and a third in her last five races. Her victories came in divisions of the Reynolds Stakes at Tioga Downs and the Kindergarten Series at the Red Mile.
Her remaining three on-the-board finishes during that span came in record-setting races. She finished third in a division the Kentuckiana Stallion Management Stakes at Hoosier Park, where Speak To Me established the track mark for two-year-old female trotters with a 1:55.2 victory.
Next, at the Red Mile, Gold Cora finished second to Jolene Jolene in a division of the Bluegrass Stakes in a 1:52.1 mile that equalled the world record. A week later, she was second to Mission Brief in a division of the International Stallion Stakes in the fastest-ever mile by a two-year-old trotter, 1:50.3.
“We stayed up tight (in the Kentuckiana) and she hadn’t gone those kinds of fractions before and she just didn’t get home any,” Gillock said. “It was just the way that race went; it took a toll on the majority of them except the horse that won. But I think that stretched her out a little and I hope she’ll keep going forward.”
Following the Historic-Acorn Stakes, Gold Cora could go to Canada for the Goldsmith Maid or to Vernon Downs for the final preliminary round of the Kindergarten Series.
“We’ll see how we do at (Philly) and go from there,” Gillock said.
Pennsylvania Sire Stakes champion Wild Honey is the 8-5 morning line favourite in the first division of the Historic-Acorn Stakes. The Jimmy Takter trainee has won seven consecutive starts since losing her debut by a head to Gatka Hanover. In September, she trotted the fastest mile in history by a two-year-old trotter on a half-mile racetrack, winning in 1:55.2 at the Delaware County Fair in Ohio.
Takter’s Shaqline, who is coming off second-place finishes in divisions of the International Stallion and Kentuckiana Stallion Management stakes, is the 8-5 choice in the third division.
Jersey Strong, trained by Mark Harder, is the 8-5 favourite in the fourth and final division. She finished second to Wild Honey in the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championship.
This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.