Warrawee Ubeaut, the filly who became the fastest two-year-old of all time when she won in 1:48.3 en route to her 2018 divisional championship, will make her seasonal debut this Friday (May 3).
Warrawee Ubeaut's Friday start will come at Harrah’s Philadelphia. Friday will mark the first 2019 action in the rich Pennsylvania Sire Stakes program.
There will be two $83,240 divisions of Sire Stakes three-year-old pacing fillies, while their Stallion Series counterparts will contest $20,000 in each of five divisions.
The Sweet Lou filly Warrawee Ubeaut, to start from post seven in her Sire Stakes section for driver Yannick Gingras and the ownership of Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Phil Collura, and J&T Silva- Purnel & Libby, is one of six fillies trainer Ron Burke has entered in the Sire Stakes, and he’ll have three going in each division.
Warrawee Ubeaut, who also was the richest freshman in 2018 North American harness racing with $646,995 in earnings, won her Breeders Crown event last year, one of her seven victories on the campaign; another was the historic world record at Lexington, where she came home in :53.2. Warrawee Ubeaut has had two qualifying preps at The Meadowlands for her sophomore campaign, both times winning in 1:53.2.
The champion's main rival in this event may be the Somebeachsomewhere filly Stonebridge Soul, who won her last two starts as a freshman in stakes company, then returned last week for trainer Chris Ryder and driver Dexter Dunn by winning at Philly in 1:53.1, with twin :27.3s coming home. Taking a shot at “the big girls” is another daughter of Somebeachsomewhere, Trillions Hanover, the winner of her 2018 Stallion Series Championship and also victorious in her first start of the year in 1:52.3 at The Meadowlands for trainer Tom Fanning.
In the second Sire Stakes division, starting from the rail will be Sylph Hanover, another Burke trainee who was a 13-1 upset winner in her Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championship last season in 1:51.4. Matt Kakaley is the regular driver of the Somebeachsomewhere filly for Burke Racing LLC, William Switala, James Martin, and Joseph Critelli, and he was in the sulky when “Sylph” added the Matron Pace to her list of credits towards the end of her two-year-old campaign.
Sylph Hanover faces no fewer than four horses coming off of a victory. Three of them are undefeated in their 2019 campaigns; the other, Pretty N Fast, added her third straight victory in a late-closing final at The Meadows last time, and she also hails from the productive Burke barn.
The Sire Stakes events will go in races eight and twelve; the five Stallion Series events will face the gate in races three, seven, nine, eleven, and thirteen. Though currently in the lower division of the program, the Stallion Series fillies have already won 24 races among them this year, and some are only now finding their top form.
Post time for Friday’s card at Philly is 12:25. There will be live racing on both Saturday and Sunday at 12:40; the Saturday card is a special Kentucky Derby Day card that will feature opening round action of the 2019 Great Northeast Open Series.
(PHHA / Harrah’s Philadelphia)