Hambletonian runner-up Mission Brief met up with her filly foes on Friday night at The Meadows and breezed through her latest assignment, winning the $174,000 Moni Maker in 1:52.3.
Sent postward as the overwhelming 1-9 favourite among the six filly field, Mission Brief was followed by 90-1 longshots Im So Fancy and Gatka Hanover across the wire, giving trainer Ron Burke a sweep of the top three spots.
Leaving from post four, Mission Brief and driver Yannick Gingras worked their way to the lead through a :28 first quarter and cleared the Oaks winner and eventual breaker Wild Honey (Dave Palone) as the field moved in front of the grandstand for the first time. The Muscle Hill-Southwind Serena filly then cruised unchallenged through middle splits of :56.1 and 1:24.1 en route to the effortless three-length victory. Gatka Hanover (Mike Wilder) began to advance from last approaching three-quarters, flushing out Im So Fancy (Tony Hall), and those two fillies completed the Burke triactor.
Mission Brief's 1:52.3 clocking was the fastest this season by a three-year-old trotting filly on a five-eighths mile track.
“I thought the only way to get beat is to do something stupid,” said Gingras. “Even if someone decided to go on, I thought I could trot by them. So I wanted to give her a chance to get her feet under her and go from there. She’s faster, bigger, and stronger. She doesn’t look like a filly; she looks like a colt.”
Mission Brief is now five-for-seven in her sophomore campaign and has finished no worse than second to earn $562,347 in purses for owners Burke Racing Stable, Our Horse Cents Stables, J And T Silva Stables and Weaver Bruscemi.
"[Mission Brief is] a special horse, the best horse I’ve ever trained," said Burke. “There’s no part of me that wavers on that -- she’s the best horse I’ve ever trained."
Prior to the race, Burke indicated he likely would keep Mission Brief in against fillies for the balance of the season, but what he saw in the Moni Maker has him considering other options.
“I would like to maybe try it [racing against males],” he said, “but it won’t be an easy sell to everybody else in our group. I’m a little bit gamer -- maybe I believe more in her than anybody does. For a while, it’s a decision we don’t have to make.”
Burke said Mission Brief’s next race will be the Elegantimage Stakes at Mohawk Racetrack, with a lot of “green” time for the filly between now and then as well as continuing medical treatments for her back.
“We’ll keep after that, but I don’t think it’s a chronic condition,” he said. “It was something that came on. She got out of kilter like anybody else and had to work her way through it. When she warmed up tonight, she was as sound as she’s been all year.”
(With files from The Meadows)