A total of 14 three-year-old trotting fillies have entered the Hambletonian Oaks.
There will be two $35,000 eliminations on Saturday (July 27) to get to a field of 10 for the $500,000 final on Hambletonian Day, August 3.
Headlining the 2013 Oaks is world record holder Bee A Magician. The trotting daughter of Kadabra - Beehive made her most recent start at The Meadowlands a memorable one, winning the Del Miller Memorial in a sizzling 1:51 - making her the fastest three-year-old trotting filly in harness racing history and the fastest three-year-old trotter of any sex this year. With the open format for the two-heat Hambletonian, many wondered if Bee A Magician would face the colts in the $1 million trotting classic.
"We had the plan and we’re going to stick to going in the Oaks and race her against her own kind," trainer Richard 'Nifty' Norman said last week. "We just feel that going two heats against the boys might be too much. You get a day [like this] where it’s a hundred-odd degrees and it might be too tough."
Bee A Magician has won all seven of her starts this year and earned more than $516,000 for owners Melvin Hartman, Herb Liverman and David McDuffee. For her career, Bee A Magician has won 17 of 20 races and banked $1.27 million.
“All the owners are on board with it. We just feel that we have to protect the horse as much as possible. I actually think the fillies might be tougher than the colts, but it’s more the two-heats factor than the opposition.”
The Ontario-bred drew the rail in the first elimination and aims to be the first Ontario-sired filly to win the Oaks.
Elimination #1
PP - Horse
1 - Bee A Magician
2 - Fashion Athena
3 - Miss Steele
4 - Ma Chere Hall
5 - Frau Blucher
6 - Handover Belle
7 - Déjà Vu Too
Elimination #2
PP - Horse
1 - Time To Kill
2 - Southwind Cocoa
3 - Raring To Go S
4 - To Dream On
5 - Coffeecake Hanover
6 - Mistery Woman
7 - Classic Martine
Good luck to the connections.
Good luck to the connections. I am marvelled by her stubborn determination to win. Win or lose, BEE A MAGICIAN has nothing to prove. She's a great filly. RICHARD "NIFTY" NORMAN also deserves a lot of credit for managing the filly so professionally.