Shes All In, the only three-year-old filly in Pompano Park’s Open Trot, established a new track record for her age, sex and gait on Wednesday night by scoring a mild upset victory for owner, trainer and driver Rick Plano in 1:54.1.
The prior mark for sophomore trotting fillies was 1:55.2, set by Claire Up Front over eight years ago.
The daughter of Revenue S got a picture perfect drive, relishing a journey in the garden spot before tilting out turning for home and wearing down another track record co-holder, Dutchess Seelster (Wally Hennessey), in the final strides for the win -- her eighth of the year in 26 starts. Last week’s winner, Prairie Big John (Tom Sells), finished third while the favourite, Commander K (Jason Dillander), finished fourth with Ill Tell You What (David Ingraham) taking the minor award in the field of five.
“I couldn’t have planned a better itinerary if I had drafted the plans myself,” said Plano. “She got the trip of her life tonight and I have to give credit to two people. The caretaker, ‘Lehigh’ (Sharon Lee Vickery) and Bob Lippiatt, who had this track manicured to perfection.
“This filly could have been headed to a sale, but ‘Lehigh’ liked her so much and persuaded me to keep her. I’m sure glad I listened!”
It was Dutchess Seelster who took command first step out of the gate and clipped off panels of :28, :56.4 and 1:25 as the two distaffers were 1-2 throughout the mile.
Ill Tell You What made a mild bid on the backside to reach third, but faltered turning for home allowing Prairie Big John through on the inside to pick up the show honours.
Shes All In, lightly raced at two with just seven starts, pushed her lifetime bounty within "inches" of $50,000 -- $33,158 of that this season.
The Open 2 Trot went to Pacing Pretty Stable’s Good Luck Penny for Jason Dillander in 1:55.4. The six-year-old, trained by Jim McDonald, came from well off the pace to wear down the pacesetting 3-5 favourite, Dream Lake (Matt Romano) for his second consecutive win. Celebrity Legacy (Ranger) was third.
In a post race interview, trainer McDonald said, “He’s a big horse so we move him up three generations of race bikes to a UFO. I told Jason to race him the same way he won last week. Like they say, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’ That’s exactly what he did and things worked out our way.”
Good Luck Penny garnered his 16th lifetime win in his 101st start and sent his life’s bounty to $154,208.
Usually, $4,000 claimers don’t too much press but, on this night, Smashing Art won his event in 1:54.1, noteworthy because the pacer was owned by Clay Faurot, Sr., who passed away just 48 hours after the horse was entered for his race on Wednesday night.
(With files from Pompano Park)