While many of the sport’s top distaffers are stateside butting heads in the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series at Yonkers Raceway, arguably the best older pacing mare in the game is setting her sights on a later start to the season.
Lady Shadow is her name, and steamrolling over just about everything in her path has been her game over the last couple of seasons for trainer Ron Adams. She competed in the aforementioned series at Yonkers last year, but there’s a change of plans for this season.
“She had bad racing luck in it last year,” Adams told Trot Insider. “Too many weeks on a half-mile track is hard on her. You can do it for a week or two, but the five weeks is tough and she’s not really handy enough on the half-miler. She can do it, but it’s hard on her.”
Earlier this year Lady Shadow won her third straight O'Brien Award -- second consecutive in the Older Pacing Mare category -- and also garnered her first Dan Patch Award to sweep divisional honours. The daughter of Shadow Play put together another profitable season with 12 victories from 20 starts and more than $945,000 in earnings. She was strong throughout the season, sweeping the eliminations and finals of the Roses Are Red, Milton Stakes and Breeders Crown. She also scored added-distance victories at The Meadowlands in the Golden Girls and Lady Liberty, and capped off her year with a win in the TVG Free-For-All Championship.
After some rest and relaxation following that brilliant five-year-old campaign, Lady Shadow is back in training for Adams who couldn’t be any happier with the way she finished the year and the way she looks as she preps for a busy season of stakes action.
“At the end of her four-year-old year she was tired and wore out, but last year she was as good as she’s ever been at the end of the season,” added Adams. “She had some nice down time at Kentuckiana Farms, and they did a great job with her. Hopefully she has a big year again.”
Her year will soon be underway according to Adams, who indicates Lady Shadow is less than a month away from resurfacing if all goes well.
“I’ll qualify her twice and then we’re aiming for Miami Valley for the Chip Noble Memorial in early May for her first stake race. I trained her in 2:20 last weekend, and I was really happy with her. She looks like a tank.”