With the 2008 O'Brien Awards less than two weeks away, the SC website will shine the spotlight on the finalists in each O'Brien division
.
The first profile highlights the two-year-old trotting filly division.
ELUSIVE DESIRE - The daughter of Angus Hall - Valley Amber recorded her first win of the season in an October 31st Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Elimination at Woodbine Racetrack.
The filly obviously enjoyed that first taste of victory because she won her next two starts to wrap up her rookie season.
The first of those came in the $120,000 OSS Gold Final on November 7 at Woodbine in a lifetime best 1:57.4 for regular driver Paul MacDonell.
She then followed up with a crushing eight-length tally in the $300,000 OSS Super Final at Woodbine on November 15. The time was 2:00.2 on a blustery night when the track was listed as sloppy and rated as three seconds off.
Elusive Desire missed the board just once in 14 trips postward for trainer Mike Keeling while banking just over $395,000 for her connections.
Some of her other top results during the season included a second-place finish in her $105,100 division of the Robert Stewart Stakes, a runner-up effort in a $96,508 Champlain Stakes division and a third-place finish in the $501,600 Peaceful Way Final - all contested at Mohawk Racetrack.
WINDSONG SOPRANO - This powerful trotting daughter of the ill-fated Windsongs Legacy showed flashes of brilliance during her initial campaign and was one of the stable stars for O’Brien Award finalist Bob McIntosh.
In her very first career start she rallied from tenth to fourth in the $105,100 Robert Stewart Stakes division at Mohawk Racetrack, serving notice that she could compete against the division’s best.
She validated that result with a solid second-place finish two starts later in a $98,508 Champlain Stakes split at Mohawk where she was charted in 1:56.3.
That propelled Windsong Soprano into the Peaceful Way eliminations on September 8 at Mohawk and the filly responded with a maiden-breaking tally in 1:57.4 over a sloppy track. She was even better six days later in the $501,600 Final, winning by more than three lengths in 1:57.1 under similar track and weather conditions.
That momentum continued in Lexington where she extended her win streak to three with an electrifying six-length victory in 1:53.4 in a $64,100 division of The Bluegrass Stakes at The Red Mile on September 23.
The clocking was a North American season’s mark for two-year-old filly trotters and was just one-fifth off the seasonal mark for both sexes.