Trailing by five lengths at the three-quarters, Named Desire found her desire late and rallied strongly to capture a division of Friday’s $160,000 Pennsylvania Stallion Series at The Meadows.
The event for two-year-old filly pacers was contested over eight divisions, with Want Answers, Maddys Dolly, Glowing Fashion, Jesses Diamond, Dirty Girty, Cool Their Jets and Lady Drama taking the other $20,000 splits. Dave Palone enjoyed a stake triple (Want Answers, Glowing Fashion, Cool Their Jets) while Tony Hall and trainer Joe Offutt teamed for a stake double with Named Desire and Lady Drama.
Named Desire got away fourth, but encountered traffic that had Hall wondering if she could recover.
“I had to check her real hard; I was kind of worried about that,” Hall said. “She’s really funny about her mouth, so when I had to check her, I honestly thought that took her out of it. But she came back well.”
The daughter of Real Desire-Nuclear Folks found her best stride second over and scored in 1:55.4, leaving her undefeated in two starts for owner-breeder Thomas Cooks. Notorius Terror closed well for second, five and a quarter lengths back, with Quik Response third.
Want Answers was fourth early, but Palone confidently sent the daughter of Western Terror-Doctor Seth on an extended quarter-pole move that carried the 1-5 favourite to the lead. She prevailed by a neck over Botox Hanover in 1:55.4 for trainer Steve Elliott and owner Howard Taylor. JVZ Dream earned show.
“She got sick when we went to load her for the Pennsylvania All Stars — she had a temperature of 102 — so we couldn’t take her,” said Toni Rose, second trainer for Elliott, of the $10,700 yearling acquisition who also is undefeated in two lifetime outings. “We were aiming for the sires stakes, but coming off that, you just don’t know what you have. So we played it safe and made sure she had an easy start.”
Brett Miller sent Maddys Dolly three-wide in the final turn, and the daughter of Yankee Cruiser-Western Dove had enough pop to make her career debut successful in 1:56.1. Cantankerous was second, four and three-quarter lengths in arrears, while early leader Cebu Hanover completed the ticket.
“She tied up a little bit on us last week,” said winning trainer Ron Potter. “It wasn’t real bad, but it was bad enough, so we put a lot of jugs in her. I’m still thinking stallion series with her. She has to do something a little bit more than this for me to want to jump her up. We’ll start her here in the Arden Downs. Then we’ll know where she is.”
Martin Presser, Whiskey Tango Stable and Last Laugh LLC own Maddys Dolly, an $8,000 yearling purchase.
Live racing at The Meadows resumes Saturday when the card features five divisions of the $323,760 Sand Tart, a Pennsylvania Sires Stake for freshman filly pacers. The stake is the centerpiece of The Meadows’ Back to the Track celebration highlighted by fireworks, a driver "dunk tank" and a second-chance raffle for losing tickets. The program gets underway at the special post time of 4:25 p.m.
(The Meadows)