“Put On A Show is, by far, the greatest mare to ever look through a bridle."
Chris Ryder might not be willing to guarantee a victory by Put On A Show in Friday’s $218,850 Golden Girls for pacing mares at Meadowlands Racetrack or offer quotes like the one above by her driver Jody Jamieson, but the trainer believes his horse is ready for another top performance.
Put On A Show is coming off a world-record 1:47.3 win in the $253,700 Lady Liberty on Hambletonian Day, August 4, at the Meadowlands. She faces 10 rivals in the Golden Girls, where she will start from post five as the 5-2 morning line favourite. Anndrovette, who won the Roses Are Red at Mohawk on July 21, is the 3-1 second choice from post two.
“I told the owners the week going into the Lady Liberty that I didn’t know how she could get beat (because) she’d been feeling so well,” Ryder said. “She’s still feeling just as good. Horses do get beat, I know that, but she’s doing as well as a horse can do. She’s doing great.
“Everything is the way we like it to be. We’re happy.”
Put On A Show, who missed all of last season because of knee surgery, has won eight of 14 races and earned $352,367 for owners Craig Henderson and Richard and Joanne Young. The five-year-old daughter of Rocknroll Hanover-Stienams Place has won four of her last five starts and eight of 11.
She was the Dan Patch Award winner as U.S.harness racing's best three-year-old filly pacer in 2010. She has won 27 of 39 career races and $2.3 million lifetime, with her $1.94 million combined purses for her two- and three-year-old campaigns setting the record for a filly pacer.
“The layoff to me was never a problem,” Ryder said. “To me, it was a plus, the time she had off, because we knew she was getting better from the surgery. (The knee) had always troubled her a little bit. I knew she would come back because she’s always been such a great athlete.
“She’s the best horse I’ve had in my barn. I’ve had some pretty good ones, but I’m going to give her the top billing.”
In the Lady Liberty, Anndrovette led the field through an opening half of :53.2, with Put On A Show sitting second and Rocklamation third. Favourite Drop The Ball challenged first over from fourth place and pulled even with Anndrovette as the field reached the top of the stretch.
As those two mares battled, driver Jody Jamieson looked for room to his outside before diving inside and guiding Put On A Show to the fastest mile in history for a female Standardbred. Put On A Show lowered the record of 1:48.1 previously shared by My Little Dragon and Anndrovette.
“She only had a mark of (1):49.4 and we always thought she deserved a much better mark than that,” Ryder said. “And here we got a world record.
“She got a nice trip, but she was very sharp. We were worried about Jody not being able to get room for quite a bit of the stretch, but it worked out. It was just a great result.”
Following is the field in post position order for the Golden Girls, with listed drivers and trainers:
1. Ginger And Fred, Jim Morrill Jr., Ron Burke
2. Anndrovette, Tim Tetrick, P.J. Fraley
3. Myluvmylife, Yannick Gingras, Joseph King
4. Chancey Lady, Brian Sears, Peter Pellegrino
5. Put On A Show, Jody Jamieson, Chris Ryder
6. Krispy Apple, Sears, Fraley
7. Rocklamation, Ron Pierce, Burke
8. Rebeka Bayama, Sylvain Filion, Patrick Lachance
9. Royal Cee Cee N, Corey Callahan, Mark Harder
10. Swinging Beauty, Doug McNair, Gregg McNair
11. Drop The Ball, Gingras, Ross Croghan
The 2012 Championship Meet at the Meadowlands Racetrack will end with a bang – literally - on Friday, August 17.
Fireworks, live music, eight stakes races, the Vernon/Meadowlands Drivers’ Championship and unbelievable prize drawings are in store at the track’s Summer Finale. The evening kicks off at a special 6:35 p.m. post time and concludes with a spectacular fireworks show after the last race.
The action on the racetrack includes the William R. Haughton Memorial and Golden Girls for older pacers; Moni Maker and Miss Versatility for trotting fillies and mares; and a quartet of New Jersey Sire Stakes Championships for two-year-olds. To view the entries for Meadowlands' Friday night card of harness racing, click the following link: Friday Entries - Meadowlands Racetrack.
This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.