Youaremycandygirl pushed her win streak to five in the $600,000 Two-Year-Old Filly Pace and carried Yannick Gingras to his third Breeders Crown victory on opening night of the championship weekend at Hoosier Park.
"It's one of those nights that you want to do good," said Gingras after Breeders Crown victories with Manchego, Ariana G and Youaremycandygirl. "You work hard all year to get to this point so it's nice that the fillies all showed up."
Leaving from post four, the Ron Burke-trained Youaremycandygirl established the lead over fellow elimination winner Rainbow Room (David Miller) heading to the first turn and carved out panels of :27.1, :56.3 and 1:25.2 before pacing away to the four and a half length victory in 1:53.2. Majorsspeciallady (Brett Miller) advanced first-over and overtook Rainbow Room for the runner-up role, giving Burke a sweep of the top two spots.
Bred by Birnam Wood Farms, the American Ideal-Sweet Lady Jane filly was a $150,000 Harrisburg Sale yearling purchase by owner W.J. Donovan of Delray Beach, Florida. She is now seven-for-nine with earnings soaring to $674,695.
"This filly has kept on getting better and better, but in New York she put in some big miles," noted Gingras. "She went in :54 in Saratoga I think her second start and she had the plugs in and it was a track record and she was very impressive then too.
"Last week, she was on her own. She was a loose horse. I tried to get her in a hole for a little bit and she wanted no part of that. Tonight, she was two fingers. Ronnie warmed her up a little bit different and she was absolutely perfect, I could have done anything I wanted with her. When I did race her from Saratoga, I raced her from the back and she paced by horses really fast. Obviously, the monkey was on my back so I took the chance to go to the front, but she can do any which was I want."
Youaremycandygirl returned $2.80 to win as the 2-5 favourite.
More updates on Friday's championships will be posted in the 2017 Breeders Crown News Centre.