After having recorded his first charted line of 2019 during qualifying action one week ago, Crystal Fashion was back at it again on Tuesday morning (April 23).
The 2018 Canadian Trotting Classic winner was in rein to pilot Tim Tetrick during this morning’s qualifying tilt, which went postward as Race 2 over a ‘fast’ Harrah’s Philadelphia course.
Tetrick and the Jim Campbell trainee lined up in the outside Post 8 and took a conservative approach early. The career winner of 13 of 29 races and $1.32 million in purses elected to sit sixth through the :29 opening quarter, but was tipped out and sent on the move prior to the half-mile pole, which was clicked off in :59.
The first-up Crystal Fashion charged forward in the third quarter and clicked off the three-quarters pole while still overland in 1:27.4.
The four-year-old gelded son of Cantab Hall was all business from there on out, as he hit the head of the lane with a five-length lead and cruised home to record a three and a half-length win in 1:57.
Crystal Fashion’s win time was right in line with his April 16 clocking, when he was first under the Harrah’s Philly wire in 1:57.1.
Crystal Fashion, who is owned by New Hope, Pennsylvania’s Fashion Farms LLC, was dynamite in last fall’s $665,000 CTC at Woodbine Mohawk Park, where he was tough as nails from Post 10 and went on to record a half-length victory in 1:52.1.
One dash later (Race 3), the hard-knocking Heston Blue Chip filly Zero Tolerance recorded her second qualifying line of her three-year-old campaign. The Joe Holloway-trained and David Miller-driven bay worked out a pocket ride from Post 2 and eventually notched a two and a quarter-length win in 1:53.1 off a strong final quarter (:27.2). Zero Tolerance, a career winner of seven of 13 races and $485,000 in purse earnings, is owned by Val Dor Farms of Freehold, NJ and Ted Gewertz of New York, NY.