Timelesswinner Two rocketed to the lead and didn’t stop until she had trotted a stakes record
1:54.4 in an elimination of the $168,215 Currier & Ives for three-year-old fillies Monday at The Meadows. SJs Minolta, sporting hopples for the first time, captured the other elimination.
Making her second start after a respectable fifth-place finish in the 2008 Breeders Crown, Timelesswinner Two was well tuned for the effort by trainer Julie Miller. Dave Palone gunned her through a front half of :57.4 and a back half of :57, all of which produced a 13-length romp over Nordic Nymph, with Broadway Paige third. Those three, along with fourth-place finisher Virgilyn Hanover, qualified for the final.
The mile shaved two-fifths of a second off the previous Currier & Ives mark established by TS Fastforward in 2007. The effort was the fastest this year by a sophomore trotting filly on a five-eighths mile track.
“She’s an impressive filly, a gritty filly,” said Palone, who finished the day with five wins on the Monday card. “The word from headquarters was to race her up close. Julie gave her a great prep —one race over the track with a conservative effort. We stretched her out a little bit tonight, and she was well within herself finishing.”
Rodney Mitchell Inc. and Freida Ivory own Timelesswinner Two, a daughter of Broadway Hall-Meadowbranch Lilly who pushed her career bankroll to $115,138 in the process.
SJs Minolta, a stakes winner despite her ongoing battles with equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM), made the front with a quarter-pole move for trainer/driver David Wade.
“She left quietly, which was good, and things got settled,” Wade said. “As fast as they were going, the pace wasn’t suiting her. She’d have been all right in there - I could have stayed in - but I thought it would be a beautiful time to get to the front and let them catch me. The hopples are giving her confidence. She trotted through the turns much better. That’s been her difficulty.”
SJs Minolta prevailed in 1:55.4, a length better than Allamerican Phoebe, with Caviar Forthe Lady third. The 1-2 favourite, Whispering Wind, endured a rough trip but finished fourth to qualify for the final. Wade owns SJs Minolta, a daughter of SJs Photo-TJs Royal Tigress, with Gerald Brittingham and Kelley Rogers.
The $100,000 (est.) final is set for next Monday at The Meadows.
(The Meadows)