Put On A Show and Fancy Filly delivered as heavy favourites while A And Gs Princess posted a mild upset in a trio of $35,000 eliminations for the Fan Hanover Stakes for three-year-old pacing fillies on Saturday
night at Mohawk Racetrack.
Put On A Show did exactly that in the first elimination, turning in a punishing first-over victory in 1:51.1 for driver Tim Tetrick. The strapping daughter of Rocknroll Hanover – Stienams Place used a :27.1 final quarter to win by 5-1/4 lengths over Brushstrokes (Mike Whelan) with Bay Girl (Mark MacDonald) landing the show spot.
Put On A Show kicked back a popular $2.50 as the overwhelming bettor’s choice.
“Almost every start of her life she's raced from off the pace and her last halves have been strong,” commented winning trainer Chris Ryder. “She'll have a better week this week than she had last week because she had to ship 10 hours from New Jersey like anyone else on Tuesday, so all things considered I'm looking forward to next week.”
Put On A Show is now perfect in four starts this season for owners Craig Henderson of Illinois and Richard and Joanne Young of Florida and it brought her earnings to just shy of $1 million lifetime.
Fancy Filly rallied from far off the pace to capture the second elimination for driver Brian Sears in 1:51.2. The daughter of Western Hanover – Fanciful Hanover got up in the final strides to nip Rock N Soul (Yannick Gingras) with Ticket To Rock (Paul MacDonell) nabbing the show spot.
The punters were all over Fancy Filly and made her the prohibitive $2.20 top choice in the wagering.
“Having the rail she was a little aggressive and I didn't want to get her jammed up there and have something happen where she might make a skip or something,” said Sears. “It looked like there was plenty of speed in there, but I got a little more cover than I wanted.
"Yannick's [Gingras driving Rock N Soul] horse was a little bit better than I thought, and I probably could have stayed two wide for a little longer but she raced good and she's real sharp right now.”
The only upset came in the final elimination when A And Gs Princess was able to stickhandle through traffic late for driver Yannick Gingras and upend the favoured Western Silk (Mark MacDonald) in 1:51.1. Windsong Grand Ave (Jody Jamieson) survived a tough trip to grab third.
A And Gs Princess kicked back $27.90 in turning in the upset.
“I wasn’t sure if she was going to win and second of all I thought Mark would get the jump on me there at the top of the stretch,” said Gingras. “I would have been happy to make the final and that was my main concern at the top of the stretch. She surprised me a little bit tonight, but I’m not shocked.”
The win was the first in five starts this season for the daughter of Allamerican Native – Amorosa Hanover and bumped her career earnings to more than $175,000 for trainer Mark Capone and the A And G Stables of Bronx, New York.
All three elimination winners were able to choose their post positions for the final and the fourth-place finisher, who drew into the final was Panagler.
Here is a look at the entire field in post position order for the $666,000 Fan Hanover Final:
1. Bay Girl
2. Rock N Soul
3. Fancy Filly
4. A And Gs Princess
5. Put On A Show
6. Brushstrokes
7. Windsong Grand Ave
8. Western Silk
9. Ticket To Rock
10. Panagler
Jetblue Volo, Text Me and Sing Jesse Sing earned upset victories in each of three $30,000 elimination divisions in the Goodtimes Trot, Saturday night at Mohawk.
As a result, the trio collected trips to the $387,000 final, set for the undercard on the Pepsi North America Cup program, next Saturday.
Each of the top three finishers from the elims advanced. Call The Warden, one of the three fourth place finishers, drew in by lot to round out the field of 10.
In the first elimination, Jetblue Volo was near last early, but came five-wide through the stretch to earn a nifty half-length win.
Jetblue Volo was driven to his third career victory, and first of 2010, by Tim Tetrick for trainer Anette Lorentzon and owner Aci Stuteri Ab of Kentucky, in 1:55.
Fellow stretch closers, Windsun Galaxie (Sylvain Filion) and Priority Photo (Trond Smedshammer), also landed berths in the final, by finishing second and third, respectively.
Jetblue Volo, a Kentucky-bred son of Yankee Glide, was making her second start of 2010, but first after an 18-1/2-length (1:55.2) demolishing of rivals in a Chester qualifier early this month.
Tetrick said the big move set Jetblue Volo up for the effort in the elim. "That was a big qualifier in Chester, he was very impressive that day. I tested him around there to get him tight for this race. He's great to drive, and the way it worked out there were a lot of leavers and I just wanted to be in the outer flow with him."
Jetblue Volo paid $11.10 to win.
In the second division, the solid Text Me kept his good form, but this time, he came from behind.
Odds-on choice Rock Hollywood (Trevor Ritchie) took command at the half-mile pole, but was hauled down late by the Kadabra colt, beaten a length, in 1:54.3. Beaten 2-1/2 lengths, Look Closer (Paul MacDonell) was third.
Randy Waples drove Text Me to his third win of 2010 and sixth overall for CSX Stables, Dave Boyle and Bob McIntosh, who also trains the horse.
Waples felt he always had a handy horse with tactical speed. "I always wanted to try and race him from off the pace, but sometimes it just doesn't always work out. Sometimes you're 3-5 and you kind of have to make sure you're not following the ones that can get in your way. He's got such great gate speed and he relaxes real good on the front, but I always thought he'd be a better horse from off the pace."
Text Me paid $7.90 to win, as the second choice.
Sing Jesse Sing finished off the evening in the Goodtimes with a head tally over Southwind Wrangler (David Miller). Adrion Dream (Paul MacDonell) was third, beaten 3-1/4-lengths.
Jody Jamieson drove the Jailhouse Jesse colt to his third lifetime win in 1:54.2 for part owner-trainer Ron Burke and his partners, Slaughter Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC and Frank Baldachino.
Sing Jesse Sing, who raced on the lead, paid $7 to win, also as the second choice.
Here is a look at the field and post positions for the final:
1. Call the Warden
2. Sing Jesse Sing
3. Jetblue Volo
4. Text Me
5. Adrion Dream
6. Priority Photo
7. Look Closer
8. Southwind Wrangler
9. Rock Hollywood
10. Windsun Galaxie
AE. Sailway Dream
In regular racing action, millionaire pacer Bigtime Ball recorded his 10th sub-1:50 victory for trainer Gord Irwin in this week’s $42,000 Open Pace. Under the command of Paul MacDonell, the six-year-old son of Presidential Ball-Keystone Trinidad moved out from third at the third quarter and put away the leader Pangiorno (Jody Jamieson) to score in 1:49.2. Ramegade Bruiser (Rick Zeron) and Keystone Horatio (Randy Waples) closed well for second and third.
Bigtime Ball paid $3.40 to win for the second consecutive time. The victory was his fifth in nine outings so far this year and pushed his earnings to $136,500 for the Irwin Stables Inc. of Cobourg,ON.
For recaps of tonight's Pepsi North America Cup eliminations, click here.
To view Saturday's results, click here.
(With files from WEG)