It is a seemingly tall task for any of this season's three-year-old trotting fillies to try to take down the mighty Crys Dream. But horseman D.R. Ackerman is well aware that at this point you just can't be afraid of the competition
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Ackerman's Creme De Cocoa and 14 other sophomore trotting fillies will head postward tonight (Friday, June 11) at Mohawk Racetrack for the eliminations for the Elegantimage Stakes.
Named by Ackerman’s mother after the chocolate liqueur, the daughter of Chocolatier is living up to her pedigree. As a two-year-old, she made $328,180 with a record of 3-2-2 in 12 starts.
The bay won the American National at Balmoral Park in a career-best clocking of 1:56.3 and finished second to Thatsnotmyname in the $437,000 Merrie Annabelle at the Meadowlands Racetrack.
Ackerman has said that his homebred is ready for her Elegantimage elimination after having endured a bit of a bumpy start to her sophomore season.
“She’s got a race into her now,” he stated. “What ever happened in her first start there, I don’t know, she came unravelled, but then she qualified back okay. Her next start was decent enough, but she got some speed underneath her and stayed with it the whole way. I think she can go along with them.”
Creme De Cocoa has drawn in with Crys Dream, the one to beat, but that doesn’t make the veteran trainer toss and turn.
“You can’t be worried about the competition or you shouldn’t enter at all,” stated the resident of Warren, Michigan.
Breeding and racing standardbreds is in Ackerman’s blood. Both his father and grandfather were in the business. Ackerman’s father, Hall of Fame trainer Doug, conditioned Chocolatier and bred him to Creme De Cocoa’s homebred mother, Judge Judy. Creme De Cocoa is three decades in the making.
“We’ve had the family, the sire and the dam, the second dam, the third dam,” explained Ackerman. “It’s just been a family we’ve had for almost 30 years. Almost all our horses are homebreds. We don’t buy, maybe one or so in a sale, but we like her.
“She’s very tall and very pretty. She’s just a real pleasure. She’s very willing and does the best she can do. She’s a very nice horse. She likes to do well and likes to race and she is very friendly to be around.”
The bay will leave from Post 2 in tonight’s third race, the second and final Elegantimage elimination. The top five finishers in each elim will advance to the $519,000 final on Saturday, June 18, the same evening as the $1.5 million Pepsi North America Cup.
To view entries for Friday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Friday Entries - Mohawk Racetrack.
(WEG)