'Reflecting' On A Special Filly

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Published: July 23, 2020 03:55 pm EDT

When Reflect With Me races in Friday’s (July 24) $100,000 Nadia Lobell for three-year-old female pacers, she is likely to be something she has not been in her most recent starts — the favourite.

Reflect With Me brings a three-race win streak to Harrah’s Hoosier Park for the Nadia Lobell. She closed 2019 with a victory in the Breeders Crown final for two-year-old pacing fillies at odds of 27-1 and opened this season with a win in a conditioned race at 7-1. Last weekend at the Meadowlands Racetrack, she captured the Mistletoe Shalee by three-quarters of a length over Lyons Sentinel at 8-1.

She will start Friday’s Nadia Lobell from Post 4 in a seven-filly field, and Andy McCarthy will be in the sulky for trainer Tony Alagna. Reflect With Me is the 7-5 morning line favourite.

“She’s been terrific,” McCarthy said. “Tony has done a great job getting her to where she’s really slick gaited now. When we first started back, there were a couple small issues, she was running in a little bit, but he’s fixed her up that way now. She might not be the strongest filly in the country, but she is probably one of the fastest, that’s for sure.”

Reflect With Me’s 1:49 win in the Mistletoe Shalee is the season’s fastest time for a three-year-old pacing filly. She has paced her final quarter mile in :25.1 and :25.2 in her two starts this year.

“She can do it any way you want, but I do think she’s better if you try to trip her out a little bit,” McCarthy said. “I definitely think she’s better off the pace than toughing it out; she’s got such high speed that it just works out better for her that way. She’s not going to bully her way around the racetrack, but if she’s close at the head of the stretch she’s got a good chance of out-sprinting them.”

Reflect With Me is a daughter of Captaintreacherous out of Remember When. She is owned by breeder Brittany Farms and Brad Grant. For her career, Reflect With Me has won seven of 13 races, missed the board only once, and earned $575,122.

In addition to last year’s Breeders Crown, her victories in 2019 included divisions of the Champlain Stakes and Eternal Camnation.

“I had quite a bit of faith in her coming back this year,” McCarthy said. “I figured she would come back good, it was just a matter of how good the others ones came back. I think every filly is going to get her turn this year. I think it’s pretty exciting.”

Priceless, the 2019 Indiana Sires Stakes champion trained and driven by Brandon Bates, is the 3-1 second early choice in the Nadia Lobell. Priceless finished fourth in the Mistletoe Shalee. Gai Waterhouse, who will be making her seasonal debut, is 9-2 early for trainer Domenico Cecere and driver Michael Oosting. She was the 2019 Kentucky Sire Stakes champ.

Racing begins at 6:30 p.m. (EDT) at Hoosier Park. The Nadia Lobell has been carded as Race 7 and carries an estimated post time of 8:18 p.m.

(USTA)

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