Trailing by 10 lengths at the half, 17-1 outsider Bold And Fresh set sail on an improbable move that carried her to victory in a stakes-fastest 1:55.4 in Saturday’s $202,135 Pennsylvania Sires Stake at The Meadows
. The event for three-year-old filly trotters, known as the Meadow Bright, was contested over three divisions, with Love U Overandover and Action On George taking the other splits.
When 3-10 favourite Cashmere N Caviar reached the lead despite being parked past the five-eighths, even Doug Miller, the trainer of Bold And Fresh, doubted his filly could erase the yawning deficit.
“I didn’t think she would even get a check,” Miller said. “She’s really starting to find her stride right now. She was lightly raced last year, and we got off to a bit of a slow start this year when she tied up. In her last two starts, although they’ve had flaws, she’s shown an unbelievable kick finishing. We think she has a great future ahead of her.”
Under Doug Snyder’s urging, Bold And Fresh used only a bit of cover before springing wide to collar Cashmere N Caviar and down her by 1-1/2 lengths. Early leader Celebrity Katie was third.
Donald Bartling owns Bold And Fresh, a daughter of SJs Caviar-Odre Coucou whom he acquired as a yearling for $40,000.
Love U Overandover had been stalking in recent outings, but Dave Palone sent her to the front as the 1-5 public choice. She prevailed in 1:56.3, a neck better than the pocket-sitting Decolletage, with Lyrical Lady third.
“We’ve tried to keep her kind of quiet since she races better from behind,” said winning trainer John Duer of Peninsula Farm’s homebred daughter of Andover Hall-Love You Most, who now has finished first or second in 10 of 12 career starts. “But the front was where we wanted to be today. She’s eligible only to sires stakes. In retrospect, we wish she had more stakes, but last year, she didn’t seem like she would be this kind of filly. We thought at the time that even sires stakes would be stretching it.”
In only her fifth career race, Action On George made a quarter-pole move for Eric Ledford and never had an anxious moment, scoring under wraps in 1:57.3. Backstreet Hanover rallied for second, two lengths in arrears, while Cantabulous completed the ticket.
“She’s real green, and she had a lot more speed left,” Ledford said. “There was no sense taking a chance with her — you have to drive her like a trotter and just wait on her — but she had a couple gears left. She has a right to get a lot better.”
Ken Sommer bred and owns Action On George, a daughter of Great George Two-Photo With Molly and a half-sister to Sommer’s accomplished race mare Action Broadway.
In the $22,500 Preferred Handicap Pace, Biletnikoff snagged another 17-1 upset with a game front-end triumph in 1:52.1 for Aaron Merriman, trainer Paul Kennedy and owner Markus Ernst. The pocket-sitting Here We Go Again fell a neck short, with Red Hot Scandal an even third. With the win, the 7-year-old Keystone Raider-Strikadeeze gelding extended his lifetime bankroll to $578,204.
Palone drove five winners and Ledford three on the 15-race program.
Live racing at The Meadows resumes at 12:55 p.m. Monday, when the card features a $5,000-guaranteed pool for the Pick 4 spanning races 11-14.
(The Meadows)