Two-year-old trotting fillies faced sloppy going at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Tuesday (July 10), racing in five $30,000 divisions of the Pennsylvania All-Stars.
The fastest winner was the homebred Sonnet Grace for owner-trainer-driver Rod Allen, and her 1:56.2 clocking despite the off going is certainly “in the pedigree,” as the Muscle Massive filly is out of I Believe, an Andover Hall mare out of C R Kay Suzie, possibly the most precocious baby trotting miss of the last 50 years.
Sonnet Grace, a 1:58.1 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes winner at The Meadows in her previous start, lowered her mark with her All-Stars win, but she had to work hard for it, showing a big acceleration in the Pocono Pike in the last 50 yards to just nose out Rush Lane, who grinded to the lead earlier in the stretch. The 1:56.2 clocking was not only a divisional record this season for a five-eighths-mile track, it also beat the colts’ standard of 1:56.4 notched Monday (July 9) by Prospect Hill and Fashion Possessed in their All-Stars wins.
Trainer Jimmy Takter and driver Yannick Gingras twice combined with daughters of Muscle Hill to begin paying back on hefty yearling prices.
First up was The Ice Dutchess, a $320,000 purchase and a full sister to Ice Attraction (their dam is The Ice Queen), who controlled the pace and took a half-length victory over first-over Scirocco Donnahill in 1:57.1. The Ice Dutchess previously recorded a 1:56.4 baby qualifying win at The Meadowlands for the Coyote Wynd Farms.
A bit later, $480,000 yearling Beautiful Sin (Muscle Hill-Sina) made a beautiful debut, quarter-moving for Gingras and staying strong to the wire to win by 3-1/4 lengths in 1:58.1. Beautiful Sin had previously notched three straight morning wins at The Meadowlands for the SRF Stable.
Matt Kakaley was able to rally Fate Smiled from the pocket to a head victory in 1:58.4, just catching pacesetter Fraulein Blucher. Fate Smiled is a Muscle Massive filly out of half-millionaire For A Dancer who had won her previous start in a division of a Sire Stakes event at The Meadows in 1:58. Ron Burke trains her for Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, J&T Silva-Purnel & Libby and Michelle Yanek.
Fate Smiled was a 9-5 second choice, and the first three winners listed here were the favourites in their respective races. The upsetter in the All-Stars on Tuesday was 12-1 shot Sabrina Deo, a daughter of Muscle Hill out of the half-million dollar winner Caught My Eye. She moved out from the pocket at head-stretch and caught pacesetter Fast Reaction by three-quarters of a length in 1:57.3 in her purse bow. Corey Callahan was in the sulky for trainer John Butenschoen and the ownership of Harmony Oaks Racing Stable Inc., Rojan Stables and Tangie Massie. The winner had been second in two morning outings before this win.
(PHHA/Pocono)