After working her magic on track last year during a million-dollar debut season, O’Brien Award winner Poof Shes Gone is back in training and so far
all systems are go for another stakes-filled campaign.
Last season, she dominated her division, winning 10 of 12 races during her million-dollar campaign. She enjoyed her finest hour when she emerged victorious in the $617,880 Breeders Crown on October 24 at Woodbine.
The enchanting three-year-old daughter of Kadabra - Travelin Superlite spent the winter at Michael Gulotta’s Deo Volente Farm in Flemington, New Jersey, and resumed training on January 15 with Richard "Nifty" Norman at White Birch Farm in Allentown, New Jersey.
“She’s come back in excellent order,” Norman told Trot Insider. “It looks like she’s grown a little bit and she has definitely put on quite a bit of weight. She looks fantastic. We just started training her lightly but she seems very good and her attitude it great. It always has been.”
Poof Shes Gone will look to make her 2010 stakes debut in the first Ontario Sires Stakes Gold event at Woodbine Racetrack in May and will remain in Canada for the Casual Breeze and Elegantimage Stakes at Mohawk Racetrack in June.
“The Hambletonian Oaks would be the main race we’re going to aim for,” says Norman, who admits that he and owners Melvin Hartman, Herb Liverman, David McDuffee and John Fielding have joked about racing her against the boys in the Hambletonian.
“It’s hard to judge [how well she could race against the boys],” he says. “Based on last year’s performance, I would give her a fighting chance but you never know how they are going to come back or how strong the colts are going to be this year. It’s a hard one, but if we got to that time of year and she was doing exceptionally and the colts looked a little weak, you know it’s a possibility. We’ll just have to see how things go.”
Norman says after the Hambletonian Oaks, Poof Shes Gone will head back to Canada until the Breeders Crown. “It’s a little earlier this year and it’s at Pocono Downs so that is our other goal, and another Super Final hopefully.”