O So Easy, with Verlin Yoder at the lines, became Hoosier Park Racing & Casino’s newest track record holder when she powered home a winner in 1:54.3 in the fourth round of $75,000 Indiana Sires Stakes finals for two-year-old trotting fillies on Tuesday evening.
After establishing a new lifetime best of 1:55.1 in her elimination last week, O So Easy bested that time to re-establish the track record for two-year-old trotting fillies, a mark of 1:54.4 set by Princess Aurora in Grand Circuit racing action last season.
In just the ninth start of her freshman campaign, O So Easy used a gate to wire effort to defeat nine other rivals and score her fourth consecutive win of the season. Her 1:54.3 victory also marked the fifth track record that has been re-established at Hoosier Park throughout the 2017 live racing season.
Leaving from post eight, O So Easy left alertly with the wings of the gate but would have to work for position as Sam Widger and Lisas Famous Filly also left for position from the inside. O So Easy would grab command just before the first stop in a snappy :26.4 and continue to call the shots through splits of :55.4 and 1:24.4.
As the rest of the field struggled with the quick fractions, O So Easy looked strong on the front and her lead was ever-increasing turning for home. O So Easy coasted on to the wire to finish nearly two lengths in front of Meadowbrook Grace and Trace Tetrick who staged a big rally late in the lane but were no match for the winner. Custom Cantab and Peter Wrenn used a ground-saving trip to secure third place honours. As the 4-5 heavy betting favourite, O So Easy returned $3.60 to her backers at the betting windows.
“I was just going to try to float out of there but I asked her to go behind the gate and it took me a while to get her settled back down,” Yoder, who also does the training duties, noted after the win. “She came back to me and I was able to get her quieted down so that helped. As soon as she heard those horses coming around the last turn, she took right back off.”
“I was just trying to get to the wire first,” he continued. “I knew we were going a pretty good mile but I didn’t think it would be a track record.”
The rookie filly has now won seven of nine lifetime starts and has yet to finish off the board in 2017. The daughter of Swan For All-Ostia Hanover is owned in partnership by Verlin Yoder and Eleven Star Stables. O So Easy has now amassed $168,650 in lifetime purse earnings.
Live racing at Hoosier Park Racing & Casino continues on Wednesday, September 12 with a stakes-filled 14-race card. Wednesday’s card will feature the $160,000 Nadia Lobell Stakes for three-year-old pacing fillies and also the $75,000 Indiana Sires Stakes Final for two-year-old pacing colts and geldings.
A field of nine is set to square off the in the 2017 edition of The Nadia Lobell Stakes and will feature two of harness racing’s Top-10 ranked horses in the Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown Poll.
Agent Q, currently ranked eighth on the poll, will start from post seven with David Miller in the bike for trainer Aaron Lambert. Blazin Britches, currently ranked tenth on the poll, will return to Hoosier Park and put her four-race win streak on the line from post three with Trace Tetrick in the bike for trainer Brian Brown.
This will mark the first time this season these two fillies have met behind the gate. Blazin Britches and Agent Q share the mark for fastest win time by a three-year-old female pacer this season, at 1:48.4. The Nadia Lobell Stakes, which has been carded as the 10th race on the program, will also feature a $20,000 Guaranteed Trifecta.
Grand Circuit action returns to Hoosier Park as part of Hoosier Park’s 2017 Championship Meet, which features a record-breaking $14 million stakes schedule. The twelve-week championship stretch, which kicked off on Friday, August 11 with the $325,000 Dan Patch Stakes, will offer an unparalleled series of high caliber stakes races, culminating with the Breeders Crown championship races which will come to Hoosier Park for the first time ever on October 27 and October 28.
(Hoosier Park)