Fashion Schooner had a rough go of it last year as a two-year-old, but you wouldn’t know it if you saw her Friday night at The Meadowlands.
The daughter of Walner-Broadway Schooner won her first outing of 2022 in impressive fashion, grabbing the top after the quarter-mile marker and rolling home to a dominant score in a non-winners of two for three-year-old trotting fillies.
It was her first win from five career starts, but trainer Jim Campbell has high hopes for his filly, whose dam – a Campbell trainee – was victorious in the 2009 Hambletonian Oaks.
“I was very happy with her,” said Campbell of Fashion Schooner. “She’s got a lot of ability. We’ve got to make sure she keeps her composure. She’s the type of filly who can get herself nervous and worked up, so we’ve been working with her. She was good in both of her qualifiers and was good tonight. We’ve been doing a lot of teaching.”
Fashion Schooner went around leader Mrs Taylor, who hit the quarter in :29.3, and made the top soon thereafter. Driven by Tim Tetrick, she hit the half in :58.1 and three-quarters in 1:27.1 before sprinting home in :27.1 to record a powerhouse 8-1/4 length destruction in 1:54.2 as Mrs Taylor held on to second. Ever Lovin was third.
As the 4-5 favourite, Fashion Schooner returned $3.60 to her backers.
Were she to continue to improve, big things await in 2022.
“Last year, she got sick back in the spring and we had to stop with her until she got over it,” said Campbell. “She got a late start because of that. We raced her one time at The Meadowlands and she was good but then we went down to Lexington and she wasn’t very good. So, we shut her down.”
Campbell is crossing his fingers, looking for a possible Hambletonian Oaks win this August.
“Any three-year-old trotting filly in my barn, I have those aspirations,” said Campbell. “Me, and 50 other trainers.”
Fashion Schooner is owned by Jules Siegel’s Fashion Farms, who also bred the filly.
“It’s been a very good family,” said Campbell. “A lot of good horses have come from that line. She’ll be back next Friday in the first leg of the New Jersey Sire Stakes.”
When 12-1 chance Doctor Butch won the 13th race on the Friday night Big M card, the result was no winning tickets sold in the 20-cent Pick-6, meaning that for Saturday’s program, there will be a carryover of $26,870.60, the result of no one having a winning P6 ticket on either of the last two race cards.
Those with five correct Friday collected $136.98.
With the carryover not subject to the already low 15 percent takeout, were there $75,000 in “new money” wagered Saturday, that would create a total pool of $90,620, good for a “surplus” of $15,620, a remarkable value for the player, as the return to the bettor would be 121 percent instead of the usual 85.
The 20-cent Pick-6 starts with race eight, and free past performances for every race of every Meadowlands card are available by going to playmeadowlands.com.
Catch the Pick-6 action on Fox Sports 2, as that network will be showing most of the Saturday Big M races live to a national television audience beginning at 7 p.m.
(Meadowlands)