Trainer George Ducharme hopes Bee The Queen can ascend to the top ranks of two-year-old female trotters.
Ducharme will send out Bee The Queen and Concentration in Thursday night’s Bluegrass Stakes divisions for two-year-old fillies at the Red Mile in Lexington. There are four divisions, with Concentration competing in the third and Bee The Queen in the fourth.
Wild Honey, a Jimmy Takter-trainee fresh off her world record 1:55.2 win in a division of the Standardbred Stakes at the Delaware County Fair in Ohio, is the 6-5 favourite in the first division. Stakes-winner Jolene Jolene, from the barn of trainer Jonas Czernyson, is the 9-5 favourite in the second split.
Bee The Queen, who enters the Bluegrass off three consecutive wins in the Kindergarten Series, will start from Post 1 with driver Brian Sears and is 3-1 on the morning line. She is the second choice behind 5-2 favourite Allerage Star, a stakes-winner from the stable of trainer Jessica Okusko.
“We liked her as a yearling and she acted good all winter,” Ducharme said about Bee The Queen. “We ran into a few bumps in the road early in the spring when we got close (to racing), so we gave her time and were patient with her and it seems like it’s turned out to be the right decision.
“She’s peaking at the right time as far as I’m concerned.”
Bee The Queen is owned by Al Ross and was purchased for $40,000 at last year’s Lexington Selected Sale. She is a daughter of stallion Donato Hanover, the 2007 Horse of the Year, out of the mare Bee Line, who won the 2006 Elegantimage Stakes.
For the season, Bee The Queen has won four of eight starts and earned $21,267. She has won each of her last three races by at least two and a quarter lengths.
“It’s definitely helped her attitude,” Ducharme said about Bee The Queen getting several wins under her belt in the Kindergarten Series. “She acts pretty cocky around the barn, so hopefully that translates into some good things as we go forward.
“I like her determination. She has a great attitude and she really wants to do it.”
Bee The Queen’s remaining stakes schedule includes the International Stallion Stakes at the Red Mile, the Goldsmith Maid, and the Breeders Crown.
Concentration is a daughter of Conway Hall out of the mare Super Starlet. She is owned by Raymond ‘Chip’ Campbell Jr., who bought Super Starlet in foal to Conway Hall in 2011, with the result being Concentration. Her family includes stakes winners My Starlet, My Starchip, Crown Starlet, Forever Starlet, Lady Starlet, and Sir Perseverance.
She has won four of nine races and $108,620. All of her victories came on the New York Sire Stakes circuit.
“We had no idea what she was going to be,” Ducharme said. “It’s the first one we’ve ever trained out of that mare. Her attitude has been excellent and she’s really turned into a good filly. She gets better every week.
“She seems a little better on a big track, like most horses, but she’s been very game and done everything we’ve asked her to do.”
Concentration went off stride over a ‘sloppy’ track at Yonkers Raceway in the New York Sire Stakes championship for two-year-old female trotters on September 13, but rallied to finish fourth.
“She made a break on the first turn,” Ducharme said. “It was a little tough down on the rail and she had the rail that night. But she got back trotting and finished fourth, so we were pretty happy with her there.”
Ducharme, who trained 2013 Hambletonian winner Royalty For Life, also has a two-year-old male trotter ready for Friday’s Bluegrass Stakes divisions at the Red Mile. Wings Of Royalty, bred and owned by Campbell, has won two of eight races and finished second to Crazy Wow in the NYSS championship for two-year-old male trotters.
Wings Of Royalty is a son of stallion RC Royalty, who is also owned by Campbell and is the father of Royalty For Life. Wings Of Royalty’s mother is Sparkling Cider and his family includes 1990 Hambletonian winner Harmonious.
“I think he’s going to have a chance to be a pretty decent horse,” Ducharme said. “He was much better on bigger tracks and I think this place might play into his favour. He got around half-mile tracks, but he wasn’t at his best. I think being back on a big track will really help him.
“Hopefully,” he added, “it will be a good fall.”
This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.