Lather Up, 2018 Pepsi North America Cup winner and runner-up to Dorsoduro Hanover in the Breeders Crown, led a star-studded qualifying card on Tuesday morning (April 16) at Harrah's Philadelphia with an easy 1:53.4 win.
In his second qualifier since an eighth-place finish in last year's Matron, the four-year-old son of Im Gorgeous rated a :58 first half before displaying a powerful turn of foot up the backstretch, posting a :27.2 third sectional before being taken in hand by Montrell Teague through a :28.2 final quarter, 1-3/4 lengths in advance of New York Sire Stakes champion Rockapelo (Tim Tetrick). Clyde Francis trains 15-time winner Lather Up, whose three-year-old seasion also included victory in the Ohio Sires Stakes final and a third-place finish in the Little Brown Jug, for Gary and Barbara Iles.
In the day's most impressive trotting effort, millionaire Crystal Fashion and Tim Tetrick sustained a wide bid from fourth up the backstretch and through the far turn en route to a 1:57.1 qualifying win, 8-1/4 lengths better than Signal Hill. Last year, the four-year-old Cantab Hall gelding took top honours in the Earl Beal Memorial and the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championship before capping his season with a runner-up finish to Six Pack in the Kentucky Futurity and a third-place finish to Tactical Landing in the Breeders Crown. Jim Campbell trains Crystal Fashion for Fashion Farms LLC.
Among the top performances from three-year-olds, dual-eligible Bettors Wish, who was the runner-up in last year's Battle of Waterloo and Ontario Super Final, vaulted home from the pocket in the final eighth of his qualifier, drafting behind Sweet Lullaby through splits of :28.1, :57.2 and 1:25.2 before pulling pocket off the home turn and accelerating to a 3-1/4 length win in 1:53.3. Dexter Dunn drove the three-year-old son of Bettors Delight for trainer Chris Ryder. Bettors Wish has been assessed odds of 22-1 in the 2019 TROT Magazine Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book.
Sophomore pacing filly Zero Tolerance made her first appearance since a game second-place effort behind Prescient Beauty in last year's Three Diamonds a winning one, rating splits of :29.1, :58.4 and 1:27 before scooting 7-1/2 lengths clear of Sun Viser in 1:55.1. Regular driver David Miller, who drove the daughter of Heston Blue Chip to a second-place finish behind Warrawee Ubeaut in last year's Breeders Crown along with wins in the Bluegrass, Reynolds and Geers Stakes, was aboard for trainer Joe Holloway.
In the past week you've
In the past week you've covered qualifiers involving Courtly Choice and Lather Up, but a horse that won nearly as many races last year as Courtly Choice and Lather Up combined, qualified recently in eye-popping fashion. Last Saturday morning at Hoosier Park, Always A Prince qualified in 1:51 flat, winning by 13-1/2 lengths, the final quarter in an unbelievable 25.4! Always A Prince makes the first start of his 4-year-old campaign this Friday night at his home track, Hoosier Park.