Princess Jackie has launched her career in spectacular fashion — three straight wins, including a pair in Pennsylvania Sire Stakes, $181,353 in earnings and a mark of 1:55.3. On Thursday, she’ll try to extend that career unbeaten streak in the Delmonica Hanover, a $157,598 USD PA Sires Stakes leg for freshman filly trotters at Hollywood Casino at The Meadows.
The card also features an $80,000 USD PA Stallion Series leg for two-year-old trotting fillies. First post is 12:45 p.m.
Owner/trainer D.R. Ackerman acquired the daughter of Greenshoe-Frisky Magic at the Standardbred Horse Sale for a more-than-reasonable $30,000. The mystery is why she didn’t bring more. Ackerman theorizes that Greenshoe had yet to become a fashionable sire.
“He didn’t have quite as good a first year at stud, although he’s turned out to be a good sire,” said Ackerman. “Buyers were off him a little. Also, she was the very last horse sold on Tuesday. That may have something to do with it.
“She’s really athletic and she was pretty good from the beginning. Every time we asked her to go, she went.”
Princess Jackie, whose name honours Ackerman’s two-year-old granddaughter Jackie, is eligible to many rich, late season stakes, including the Breeders Crown and the Matron.
She will leave from post two in race eight on Thursday, with Tim Tetrick driving.
Another youngster to watch in the Delmonica Hanover is Blueberry (race six, post six, Brian Zendt), who chased Princess Jackie home in both of those Sires Stakes, finishing second and third. She also has to her credit a 1:57 victory in an Arden Downs Grand Circuit split.
Doug Snyder, who trains the homebred daughter of Father Patrick-Perfect Image for Geraldine Poerio, was high on her even before she began training. That’s because he conditioned her ill-fated full brother, who died at two following a farm accident.
“I thought she was a top filly from Day 1,” said Snyder. “When you sit behind her every day, you feel it: her gait, her stride, just the way she moves.”
Although Blueberry has a limited stakes schedule this year, she’s eligible to nearly everything at three.
Her name arose at a Poerio family dinner when blueberries were on the menu. Someone suggested Blueberry for the filly’s name and the idea spread. We don’t know how far Blueberry can go, but come Thursday, she’ll be looking to land in a pot of jam.
(Meadows Standardbred Owners Association)