Illinois’ top two-year-old trotters were in action last night at Balmoral Park, as a field of nine diagonally-gaited lasses met in the $110,000 Lady Lincoln Land Stakes and a full field of 10 colts were sent postward in the $107,000 Lincoln Land Stakes.
Despite having drawn the far outside post, La Bella Vita Stables, Robert Taylor and Kevin Dixon’s My Miss Caroline was just as dominant as she has been all season long, as she rolled to a very easy three and a half-length victory in 1:58.4.
Given a perfect steer by Dave Magee, the daughter of Psychic Spirit--Miss Clara T left hard from her outside post and neatly tucked in third as My Funky Farkle (driven by Todd Warren) trotted through an opening quarter in :29.
“With the post we had, I wanted to leave out of there pretty quickly to see if I could push them enough to find a good early spot and that’s exactly what happened,” explained Magee.
After allowing a hard-charging Very Expensive (Casey Leonard) to come flying by on the outside, Magee maneuvered the Robert Taylor-trained miss to the outside. After watching his cover float down to the pylons, Magee then had clear sailing as the field rolled through middle splits of :58.4 and 1:28.2.
“I wanted to be the first one out of there, but that other horse came charging up so hard I had to wait for her to go by us,” said a relieved Magee. “Once she was out of our way my filly just picked it up and started to pick off rivals one by one.”
Quickly taking command in the lane, My Miss Caroline never received much urging from her pilot and still managed to leave her rivals in her dust. She rolled to her ninth win in 10 lifetime starts. Fox Valley Ruffian (Mike Oosting) staged a three-wide rally around the far turn to get up in time for second while Fox Valley Helena (Marcus Miller) was third.
Sent off at odds of 1-5 despite her post, My Miss Caroline returned $2.40, $2.20, $2.10.
In the $107,000 final of the Lincoln Land, Kay Willis, John Esposito and the Brandy Pinske Stables' GJ Photo Victory staged a furious late rally to win by three-quarters of a length in a career best of 1:57.1.
Reserved through the early going as Hammer Head (Marcus Miller) and Powerful Charger (Todd Warren) traded blows through splits of :28.3 and :58.2, driver Mike Oosting moved GJ Photo Victory into the outer flow as the field headed into the final turn.
Following cover from Powerful JD (Dale Hiteman) as the field moved around the turn, things started to look up for Oosting and GJ Photo Victory when the pocket-sitting Hammer Head made a break as the field reached the three-quarter-mile mark in 1:28.1.
“Once Marcus made that break Dale moved inside with his horse and that gave us as clean a trip as we could have hoped for,” said Oosting. “If I would have had to go three-wide around Dale’s horse I don’t know if we could have caught Powerful Charger because he would have gotten too far ahead of us.”
Steadily gaining ground on his leg-weary rival, Oosting shifted the Nelson Willis trainee to the inside and the son of Photo Color--Victoria Coe seemed to find another gear as he gobbled up the pacesetter in route to his fourth win in nine career starts. Powerful Charger was second while longshot Anthony Skywalker (Brett Ballinger) finished third.
After the race, Oosting explained why he moved to the inside of his main rival for the final sixteenth of a mile.
“My horse wears a Murphy blind on the outside and he wasn’t really going after Todd’s horse the way I wanted him to,” said Oosting. “Once I moved him down to the inside of him he really took off and when he does that he can really scoot. This horse is getting better each time he steps on to the track.”
GJ Photo Victory, who went off as the second choice in the wagering, returned $6.20, $2.60, $2.20 while running his record to 4-2-1 from nine starts.
The 50 Cent Pick 5 wager was not hit on Wednesday night, so there will be a carryover of $4,952.73 added to Saturday’s wager. Saturday’s estimated Pick 5 pool is expected to be in excess of $20,000.
(Balmoral)