“It has been a pretty good season to start off with her,” trainer George Teague Jr. said about Yagonnakissmeornot, who will head postward in the $75,000 final of the Princess Series Saturday night at Woodbine Racetrack
.
The pacing miss has yet to finish worse than second in her three-year-old campaign, with five wins, including the Blossom Series final, and three second-place finishes from eight seasonal starts.
Yagonnakissmeornot will now look to capture her second stakes title of the year for owners George Teague JR Inc., Theodore Gewertz and Fannin Racing LLC.
“She has been very competitive up here in both those races (Blossom Series and preliminary legs of the Princess Series),” said the Delaware-based conditioner. “I still think she is definitely one of the better fillies in there, even though she got beat the last two times.”
Although the daughter of The Panderosa was second in the first and second legs of the Princess, Teague was pleased with her efforts, especially last week's performance.
“She raced real well last time,” he said, of the seven-time career winner with $129,496 in lifetime earnings. “I wasn’t disappointed, but she got beat by a filly (Stage It Right) that was definitely better that night.
“It seems at this point in time, and all season, that she doesn’t have any weaknesses,” he continued. “Every time she raced, she has shown up and most of the time she has shown up in a very big way. All of them have limits on actually how fast they are. So far she has done everything we have asked her to do and really done more.”
That wasn’t always the case. Yagonnakissmeornot, who is named after Thompson Square’s country song, was difficult to drive as a rookie.
“She wasn’t a bad two-year-old,” Teague noted. “She came back a little bigger and stronger. She had a few aches and pains as a two-year-old and she matured [really] well. She had to mature out of a lot of issues last year that kind of made her 'average.' This year, she came back and she stayed a lot sounder and had a little bit more focus. She just grew up. She is also a little bit easier to control.”
And ready, her conditioner hopes, to plant one on her Princess rivals.
Yagonnakissmeornot will start from Post 2 for driver Chris Christoforou.
Also on the 12-race program, 10 sophomore pacers will duke it out in the final of The Diplomat Series.
The $75,000 event will feature a trio of Dr. Ian Moore trainees, State Treasurer, Spinarama and Ontheclock Hanover, who remain eligible to the $1.5-million Pepsi North America Cup on June 16 at Mohawk.
To view the harness racing entries for Saturday at Woodbine, click the following link: Saturday Entries - Woodbine Racetrack.
(WEG)