The Pennsylvania-sired two-year-old trotting fillies come to The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono for the final preliminary of the Sires Stakes on Monday, Aug. 13 and of the Stallion Series on Tuesday, Aug. 14.
No Sire-Stakes filly was able to win all three of her prelim races to date, although Sonnet Grace and Magical Beliefs came close with two wins and a second. Both won in the first leg; Sonnet Grace beat Magical Beliefs in the second prelim; Magical Beliefs then returned to her winning ways in the third prelim while Sonnet Grace finished a head behind Antonia, who collected her second Sires-Stake win after skipping the first leg.
All three will race in the three Sires-Stakes divisions at Pocono on Monday: Sonnet Grace in the eighth, Magical Beliefs and Antonia in the eleventh. They will be joined by a powerful pair of new shooters in the Sire Stakes competition: The Ice Dutchess and Beautiful Sin, who were a neck apart as the 1-2 finishers in the Jim Doherty Memorial on Hambletonian Day.
Sonnet Grace is favoured in her eighth-race division and The Ice Dutchess in the tenth. The most contentious division, the eleventh, features Beautiful Sin opening as the choices against the two prelim winners in her section.
In Tuesday’s Stallion Series racing, there are seven divisions of action, which means the Championship picture is very far from solidified, although among the definite starters if she enters is Southwind Storm. The filly has stormed to three-straight wins in her Stallion Series preliminary action and would appear to have a good chance to go into her Championship race undefeated. She goes in the eighth-race division.
Navarone Hanover, a two-time winner in her only two Stallion Series starts, faces the gate a race earlier. The only other double prelim winner, Fast Reaction, is not entered but no fewer than eight single prelim winners are scattered throughout the card, looking to do well and make their Championship contest.
(With files from the PHHA)