Weeper blazed the first quarter in 26:4 and kept right on rolling, collecting the fastest victory in Saturday’s $210,746 Pennsylvania Sires Stake for three-year-old filly pacers at The Meadows.
The event, known as the Adios Betty, was contested over three divisions, with Also Encouraging and Cinamony — each piloted by Corey Callahan — taking the other splits.
Weeper entered the Adios Betty off two sharp wins against mares at The Meadows, and she wasted little time surging to the lead for Dave Palone. Despite the demanding opening panel, she never was seriously challenged and scored in 1:52.1. The pocket-sitting Allstar Rating was second, 2-1/4 lengths back, with Seashell Hanover third.
“She’s come back real good,” said Kelly O’Donnell, who trains the homebred daughter of Allamerican Native-Pleasant Yet Sad for Bay Pond Racing Stable. “We can’t wait to get a spot where we can race her from a hole. Every start this year she’s had to go wire to wire. We’d like her to follow somebody a little bit before we get her a little too hot.”
He said Weeper, who has won eight of 10 lifetime starts, will take a few weeks off before resuming her stakes schedule, which was moderate before Weeper was supplemented to a number of important engagements. It was one of three wins on the 12-race card for Palone.
Also Encouraging was under the radar in the Adios Betty, overshadowed in her division by Uffizi Hanover and Southwind Silence, who finished first and third, respectively, in last year’s Breeders Crown. But it was she who made the decisive quarter-pole move and captured her first stakes victory for trainer Casie Coleman and owner West Wins Stable in 1:52.3. Mamas Fallen Angel was 1-3/4 lengths behind the winner, with Tyra third. Southwind Silence tired from her uncovered bid and settled for fourth while Uffizi Hanover, stuck with Post 8, trailed throughout and finished seventh.
“We went a pretty good half, and she held in there strong,” Callahan said. “She doesn’t latch onto you or drag you around, but every time you ask her to go, she goes. That’s a good thing.”
Cinamony moved first over, gobbled up the leader, Beach Gal, and downed her by two lengths in 1:54, a lifetime mark. Secluded Beach earned show.
“She has a big brush,” winning trainer Alexander “Bobby” Rice, Jr. said of his $3,500 yearling acquisition. “We always knew if we could wait long enough for it, she would get home first. In the Weiss, she had to go big third quarters to get up into the mix, and she came up a little empty at the wire. She can pace about as fast as any of them.”
Michael Horn and Alexander Rice, Sr. own Cinamony, a daughter of Art Official-Armbro Cinnamon.
(The Meadows)