Despite winning two of her first three starts this season, Paula Smith and James Runyan’s Fox Valley Lover was still overlooked at the betting windows
in Tuesday’s $49,800 final of the Violet Stake. And the daughter of Vaporize - Love You More made her doubters pay as she cruised to a deceptively easy victory by three-quarters of a length in 1:57.2.
Handled perfectly by veteran Dale Hiteman, Fox Valley Lover floated away from post position three in the field of 10. Taking advantage of a miscue in the first turn by elimination winner Queen Creek, Hiteman masterfully tucked his filly into the pocket as a hard charging Fox Valley Strata led the field through an opening quarter in :30 seconds. Quickly popping out of the pocket Fox Valley Lover trotted to the top where she was able to get away with leisurely middle splits of 1:00 and 1:30 while under no pressure whatsoever from her rivals.
With plenty of horse left and a traffic jam keeping the heavily favoured Miss Vickie and the highly regarded Luna Marker from getting into good striking position, Hiteman and Fox Valley Lover simply trotted away from their rivals with a :27.2 final quarter to secure the victory. Luna Marker rallied late to be the bridesmaid while Miss Vickie used a :26.1 final panel to come from eighth at the top of the stretch to finish third.
“I really didn’t plan on having her up close that early but once I saw Queen Creek make that break I decided to put my filly into contention early on,” explained Hiteman. That was the key to winning this race. I knew we were getting away with some pretty easy fractions and with the way my filly felt right from the word go I knew they were going to have a tough time catching us. She was terrific tonight and I never really had to worry about a thing. She wasn’t 100% last time but with the time off and with the adjustments Joel [trainer Joel Smith] made on her she was an absolute pleasure to drive.”
“I was a little bit worried since she only had one start in the last three weeks and she was sick in that race,” said trainer Joel Smith. “That was the reason I qualified her on May 20. Once I took her through her warm-up tonight I knew she was back on her game and that she was going to give us a big effort.”
The win was the third in four starts this year and the eighth in 18 career starts for Fox Valley Lover. Sent off at 7-1, she pushed her career earnings up to $126,633 with the win.
(Balmoral Park)