Despite drawing post 10, Ramona Hill darted and fought to hold the front, enduring quick fractions and holding firm to the finish to win the $253,500 Del Miller Memorial.
“All the top fillies are in the race, but she raced so well last week,” co-owner Robert LeBlanc said after the race. “She came home in :26.2, so we knew she had something on her and we knew we had to leave. And she’s proven again she can leave, bring back and then come back on.”
Driver Andrew McCarthy motored the daughter of Muscle Hill to the lead, clearing control moving into the first turn. Past the first quarter in :26.3, Love A Good Story tipped off the pylons and brushed to the lead into the backside. Sorella, the 2-5 favourite, soon moved wide in an attempt to take the lead, but McCarthy flushed Ramona Hill off the pegs to reassert the Tony Alagna trainee on the lead.
Sorella advanced to match strides with Ramona Hill moving around the final turn with Hypnotic AM in tow and Panem racing third over. By three-quarters in 1:22.2 Sorella stalled, leaving Ramona Hill room to open her lead moving to the final eighth. Panem tipped widest off cover and mounted the largest challenge in the stretch, but McCarthy held Ramona Hill together to score a measured victory in 1:50.3. Hypnotic AM took third from Sorella, settling for fourth.
“We had Pilot Discretion last year and we raced in the Hambo. And then at the end of the year Ramona [Hill] came on and she was just fantastic,” LeBlanc said after the race. “[Alagna] brought her along slowly—she was a late foal—and we wanted to give her time. We thought we had something special, and Tony said we were going to manage her for the end of the year. And Andy just drives her fantastic. A callout to Brad Grant and the Crawfords, wish you were all here, but this is pretty special; she’s a special animal.”
Owned by Brad Grant, Crawford Farms Racing, Robert LeBlanc and In The Gym Partners, Ramona Hill won her seventh race from nine starts, earning $539,470. She paid $18.80 to win.
When asked if Ramona Hill will challenge the boys in the Hambletonian, LeBlanc said, “Who knows. We’ll talk with Tony and the owners and everything else. She’s proven she’s pretty special.”
The Del Miller Memorial was part of a stakes-packed Saturday card at The Meadowlands. Read about the rest of the action in the Meadowlands Pace News Centre.