Kats Fancy and Indiana Star posted upsets in their respective $28,169 second-round preliminary Delaware Standardbred Breeders' Fund events for two-year-old trotting fillies on Monday, Nov. 18 at Bally's Dover.
In the first division, Jane Dunavant's homebred Kats Fancy (pictured above) made every call a winning one en route to a lifetime-best 1:59.4 performance. Driver Cody Poliseno launched the Dusty Winner-Koala Kat filly forward from the outside post six to vie for the lead alongside Royal Toni (Kim Vincent). The pair sprinted away from 3-5 favourite Lady Burg (Pat Berry) on the first turn before that rival broke stride, and Kats Fancy pushed clear of Royal Toni midway on the first turn.
Kats Fancy controlled splits of :28.4, :58.4 and 1:29.1 before kicking clear of Royal Toni a sixteenth from home and winning by a widening 3-3/4 lengths under the mildest of encouragement. Saints Design (Corey Callahan) rallied mildly to finish third, 21-1/2 lengths in arrears, over Behind The Gate, who gapped the top pair up the backstretch and weakened significantly.
Carlo Poliseno trains Kats Fancy, who now has won three of her eight career starts and banked more than $48,000. She paid $5.80 to win as the 9-5 second choice.
In the second division, 1-2 public choice Song Master (Cody Poliseno) turned aside an early challenge from Holly Lou (Allan Davis) and blazed through early fractions of :27.3 and :57 before starting to noticeably decelerate up the backstretch. After a :31.3 third quarter, Song Master gave way to pocket rival Indiana Star (Tony Morgan), who dove to the open stretch and evaded Holly Lou by 2-1/4 lengths in a 2:01.2 victory. Buttoncandy (Ross Wolfenden) finished third over the fading Song Master.
John Wagenhoffer trains Indiana Star, an E L Platinum-Miss Indiana filly who competes as a homebred for Beaver Creek Farm Ltd. She paid $16.60 to win in her maiden-breaking victory.
In addition to first-round winners Lady Burg and Song Master and second-round winners Kats Fancy and Indiana Star, the following fillies will also advance to the $110,000 USD DSBF series final, to be held next Monday, Nov. 25: Holly Lou, Royal Toni, Marino Bluestone and Buttoncandy.
Rookie male trotters will contest a pair of $20,000 USD second-round DSBF divisions to kick off the Tuesday, Nov. 19 card at Bally's Dover. First post for the 14-race program is 4:30 p.m.
(Delaware Standardbred Breeders' Fund)