With each of her stakes victories, Jet Blue Burner has lowered Century Downs' track record for two-year-old pacing fillies and she produced yet another record-setting score in Saturday's Neal Adler Memorial Stakes.
Overwhelming 1-2 favourite Jet Blue Burner was last through the first half in the first $25,000 stakes division, but circled three-wide down the backside and tracked down pacesetter One Big Hottie (:29.2, :59.2, 1:28.1) to win by a head in 1:57.4. Funkmeister finished third, one and three-quarters length behind.
Jet Blue Burner shared the previous record of 1:58 with Divas Dragonfly as both fillies had turned in matching 1:58 miles two weeks ago in the Alberta Sires Stakes. Prior to that start, Jet Blue Burner had set a 1:58.2 record debuting in the ASHA Filly Stakes in late August for trainer Greg Manning before joining the Travis Cullen stable.
Cullen co-owns the daughter of Blue Burner, who is now three-for-four in her career, with his mother Jodie and partners Keith Hannah and Dwayne Taylor.
The victory was one of four on the 10-race card for Cullen.
The second division also produced a photo finish, but this time fillies Outlawtriggerhappy and Credit The Shark could not be separated at the wire and were declared dead-heat winners in a 1:59.2 mile.
The Rod Starkewski-trained Outlawtriggerhappy and driver Bill Tainsh Jr. led the field through fractions of :30.4, 1:00.3 and 1:29.1 with Credit The Shark and trainer/driver following in the pocket and 3-5 favourite Divas Dragonfly advancing first over. Down the stretch, Credit The Shark came through late and hit the wire in tandem with Outlawtriggerhappy. Favourite Brighten Your Life recovered from an early break in stride and came on for third over Divas Dragonfly.
The win was Outlawtriggerhappy's first in seven starts. The Blue Burner miss is owned by Starkewski and Clauzette Byckal. Meanwhile, Credit The Shark, a homebred daughter of Up The Credit, made her sixth career start in the Adler and earned her second stakes victory for Clark and his co-owners Harvey and Ann Jaeger, and Clint Van Ostrand.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Century Downs.