Two odds-on favourites – For A Dancer and Cocktail Attire – prevailed in $38,850 split divisions of the Lady Suffolk for three-year-old trotting fillies on Friday, May 4 at Freehold Raceway
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In the first split, the eighth race, Jeff Gregory guided For A Dancer ($3.00, $2.20, $2.20]) to a length and a quarter victory over the pacesetter, Chocolatta De Vie ($2.80, $3.00]), in 1:58.3. It was six and three-quarter lengths back to Starglow Hall ($4.00) in third.
For A Dancer, trained by Joe Holloway and racing in the name of Bluestone Farms LLC of Hopewell, New Jersey, was making her 2012 debut. At two, the New York Sire Stakes champion was third in the Breeders Crown, finished on the board in 10 of 11 starts, including eight wins, and banked $262,713.
In the second division, the 10th race, Cocktail Attire ($3.40, $2.10, $2.10), driven by Tony Schadel and trained by Linda Schadel, took the lead off the gate and never relinquished it, winning by a half-length over Loose Deuce ($2.60, $2.20). It was six and a half lengths to Kristins Victory ($4.00) in third.
Cocktail Attire, fresh off a sweep of the Action Broadway Trot, extended her winning streak to four with a mile in 1:57.4. The time of the mile was only a fifth of a second off the Lady Suffolk stakes record of 1:57.3, established in 1996 by Stacy Spice.
Owned by Tony and Linda Schadel of Sacramento, Pennsylvania, Cocktail Attire improved her career record to four wins and two seconds in seven starts for earnings of $44,941.
(With files from SBOANJ)