They played ‘musical chairs’ at Pompano Park on Wednesday night, as 10 Florida-bred two-year-old pacing fillies fought for the nine available spots in the rich Super Night final coming up on November 30.
J D Eleven Bells, handled by Rick Plano, captured the opener of the two non-wagering events while Heather, driven by Wally Hennessey, eked out a narrow win in the second.
With the first four finishers in each division going forward to Super Night, along with the fastest timed fifth place filly, it was ‘cat and mouse’ all the way in both divisions.
In the first elim, J D Eleven Bells left and yielded, allowing La Regina and Bruce Ranger to set opening panels of :30.1 and :59.3. On the backside, the daughter of Eleven A M brushed to the lead, opened up daylight turning for home and then held off the furious late surge of Gold Star Jessica (driven by Kevin Wallis) to win by a half length in 1:58.3. La Regina held on for third while Mustang Sally finished fourth.
Marion finished fifth and the wait was on to see if her time (2:01.2) would hold up enough to get an invitation to the festivities of Super Night.
J D Eleven Bells is trained by Paul Bernardo for owner Joseph Martinelli Sr. and now sports a 4-2-3 scorecard from 10 starts to go along with a mark of 1:57.1.
The second division went to Heather, a daughter of Six Of Diamonds trained by Kim Sears for owner-husband Jay Sears.
Coming into the action with but a single win and a mark of 2:03.4, Heather carved all the fractions - :29, :59.1 and 1:29.1 - and then held off the tenacious challenge of Voluminous (Rick Plano) to win by a neck with Sandalonia also in the photo. That mile was timed in 1:58.3, as well.
Limelight was fourth with ICU Charlie T, prominent early on, finishing fifth but timed well off the effort of Marion, who finished fifth in that first heat.
The victory was the second in nine starts for Heather and set up a very interesting scenario for this class on Super Night as six of the nine invitees to the finale have won on the Florida Stakes circuit with the non-winners just a photo finish away from joining that group.
Finally, in the $10,000 Open Trot, Ill Tell You What, deftly handled by Dave Ingraham, made a huge ‘double bubble’ move around the final turn to sweep past the field and scored a 1:57 win over Lugar (Tom Sells) with Mr McRail third in the field of eight.
It was the 48th lifetime win for the eight year-old altered son of Lockkeeper, sending his career bounty to $322,937 - $66,549 this year.
Ill Tell You What is trained by owner Deb Clayton.
(Pompano)