Exhibiting the talent she showed while racking up five victories and almost $160,000 in earnings despite chasing last year's division champion and Illinois Horse of the Year Pardon throughout her two-year-old season, James Runyan and Paula Smith’s Fox Valley Touche made her sophomore debut a winning one
as she rolled over eight other three-year-old state-bred pacing fillies in Friday’s $9,000 Desperate Lady Stake at Maywood Park.
Showing no signs of rust after being away since November, the Joel Smith trainee avoided an early speed duel by allowing a hard charging Skyworth (Marcus Miller) to grab command early before pulling from the pocket as the field reached the opening quarter in :28.4 over a sloppy track.
Powering her way to the front as the field headed into the second turn, the daughter of Sportsmaster-Thongundrcolrsoops was in complete command from that point on as she cruised through splits of :58.2 and 1:29.3.
After allowing Skyworth and Redhot Hart (Mike Brink) to get within a length and a half of them on the final turn, Hiteman then asked Fox Valley Touche for a little more and the filly responded beautifully as she splashed away from her rivals to win by five and a half lengths in 1:58.4. Skyworth held on for second while 41-1 longshot Miltys Gal (Casey Leonard) turned a ground saving trip into a third place cheque.
Despite having just one qualifier under her belt, Fox Valley Touche was heavily backed at the betting windows returning just $3.40, $2.20 and $2.20. With the win, the good looking bay now sports a career record of six wins, four seconds and four thirds in 17 starts with earnings of $163,850.
(Maywood Park)