Two-year-old pacing filly Strong Poison collected her second victory in the Kentucky Championship Series with a dominant sub-1:50 performance in Monday afternoon's $80,000 third leg division at The Red Mile.
Yannick Gingras worked out the winning trip aboard the Always B Miki-Fiyonce filly, who took off from her four foes to win by open lengths in a new lifetime mark of 1:49.3. The Ron Burke trainee was just one second off the two-year-old world record in her sixth career start.
Cantgetuoutamymind (Andy Miller) chased the gate away from the outside post five and crossed to command, leading by two lengths into the first turn. Her lead was short-lived though as Strong Poison swept up from the pocket to take over as they passed the quarter marker in 27 seconds.
Strong Poison controlled the race from that point on, hitting the half in :54.2 and beginning to open up a couple of lengths on the way to three-quarters in 1:22.3. She continued to pour it on down the stretch, winning by a widening nine lengths. Devilish Dreams (Todd McCarthy) finished second over Caviart Marcella (Andrew McCarthy) and Diamondnpearls (Dexter Dunn) in the race for place.
Strong Poison, a $50,000 Lexington Select Sale yearling purchase, has won half of her six starts and hit the $100,000 earnings mark on Monday for owners Burke Racing Stable, Jandt Silva Stables and Knox Services.
A winner in the Aug. 2 opening leg of the series, Strong Poison was the 1-5 favourite and paid $2.54 to win.
Burke also watched his trainee Hungry For Love repeat in the Kentucky Commonwealth Series, topping a field of 10 in a personal best clocking of 1:50.4. She won the $30,000 division by 2-1/4 lengths over Queens Reign (Andy Miller) and Seashell (Andrew McCarthy). Joey Putnam drove the winning Stay Hungry filly, who is owned by Thomas Dillon and Scott Dillon.
A pair of $15,000 divisions of the Golden Rod Series were won by the maiden-breaking Captaintreacherous filly My Nay Nay (Dexter Dunn) in 1:52.4 for trainer Tony Alagna and the All Bets Off miss Sugar Britches (John MacDonald) in 1:53.1 for conditioner Ryan Miller.
In other action, three-year-old pacing filly Raised By Lindy bested much older rivals in her return to The Red Mile, where she has not lost a race in her career. A back-to-back Grand Circuit stakes winner at the Lexington oval last October, the popular daughter of Walner overcame her outside post assignment in the $8,000 Open Handicap Trot to kick off the Monday card, winning by 8-1/4 lengths in 1:51.2 with a :26 final frame in rein to Gingras. Domenico Cecere trains the career winner of more than $322,000 who was coming off a sixth-place finish in the Hambletonian Oaks eliminations, for owner/breeder Lindy Farms Of Conn.