Mystical Sunshine recorded the fastest-ever race mile by a trotter over a half-mile track
Thursday afternoon in the $116,000 Ms Versatility final for aged trotting mares, winning in 1:53.2 over the Delaware County Fairgrounds in Ohio.
Mystical Sunshine recorded the fastest-ever race mile by a trotter over a half-mile track Thursday afternoon in the $116,000 Ms Versatility final for aged trotting mares, winning in 1:53.2 over the Delaware County Fairgrounds in Ohio.
The former World Record race mile by a trotter over a half-mile track was 1:54, recorded at Delaware by Pine Chip in 1994.
Trained by Chris Ryder and driven by Dan Dube, the six-year-old Yankee Glide mare fired out from
Post 2 and recorded the fractions in :26.4, :56.2 and 1:24.4 before soaring home for the World Record performance.
Wildfire Julie (David Miller)was also very impressive in the mile, coming home with tons of late
trot to finish up second. Harald Lunde-trained Birminghim (Jody Jamieson) finished third.
"Honestly, I'm not really surprised," said Ryder, who added that she would go to the Red Mile next and then would sell at Harrisburg. "She was coming off a good win in the Breeders Crown. We raced her last week and finished second, I just had good feeling about her, especially today.
"I'm just honoured to be able to train this mare. She's just been a really uplifting and beautiful mare to train."
"She's got really, really good gait speed and on a half-mile you've got to use it, and she responded well and did everything well," said victorious driver Dube.
"Three years ago somebody told me that Chris Ryder couldn't train a trotter - I guess they were
wrong," said co-owner Sidney Korn.
From 87 career starts, multiple stakes winning Mystical Sunshine now has an overall record of 26-21-13 and $1,941,335 in purse earnings.