Owner–trainer Jerald Viviani and Sue Phillips toted home all the cash last night at Balmoral Park, as stablemates Showmeyourstuff and Leaveitonthetrack grabbed the top two prizes in the $46,500 final of the Cardinal Stakes for Illinois-conceived and foaled three-year-old trotting colts with Showmeyourstuff cruising to a one and a half-length victory in 1:56.2.
Taking advantage of perfect positioning by the red-hot Marcus Miller, Showmeyourstuff left alertly from Post 3 and neatly tucked into the pocket behind a hard-leaving Wolf Creek Pass (driven by Brian Carpenter) as the sophomores moved by an opening quarter in :28.4.
Content to sit in the garden spot, Showmeyourstuff remained right on the back of Wolfcreek Pass as he showed the way through middle splits of :58.4 and 1:27.4.
“I knew my horse was good enough to pull and go around him if I really wanted to,” said Miller. “Brian was keeping the hammer down though and that was making it tough for horses on the outside to get up to us so I figured I’d just keep him right where he was.”
That strategy turned out to be a winning one as Miller maneuvered his charge to the outside with an eighth of a mile to go and the son of Armbro American--Pine Bough trotted right by the pace setter with a :28.1 final quarter to seal the deal. Entrymate Leavitonthetrack (Robert Smolin) uncorked a big :27.4 final quarter to rally for the place money, while Muscatine, last week’s elimination winner, came from far back to finish third. Once again, last year’s champion Run And Tell Pap made a break behind the gate and was never a threat.
The win was the third in five starts this year for Showmeyourstuff, who now boasts a career record of 6-3-2 in 18 starts with earnings of $100,316. Despite being off for three weeks before the final, the favoured coupling returned just $2.80, $2.80 and $2.20.
(Balmoral)