Check Me Out, the champion filly who in some minds is the early favourite for The Hambletonian, regained her winning ways Thursday, crushing her field by 11 lengths
in her division of a $309,312 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes at Harrah's Philadelphia.
Reuniting with Tim Tetrick for the first time since her tremendous recover in the Matron final in 2011 at Dover, the Ray Schnittker filly tripped the beam in 1:53.4. The Donato Hanover miss is owned by Schnittker and Charles Iannazzo.
Aside from Check Me Out, it was the Jimmy Takter Show on Thursday at the Chester oval, as the soon-to-be-inducted Hall of Famer conditions the other three winners - two for Brittany Farms, and the other coming within a tick of the divisional world record.
The speediest filly was Superstar Hanover, who rattled off splits of 27.3, 56.3, and 1:24.4 for sulkysmith Takter en route to a clocking of 1:53.2 -- a season's record, an equaling of Behindclosedooors' track standard, and just one-fifth shy of the divisional world mark of Hidden Viggorish. Superstar Hanover returned $18.20, mostly because Maven, conqueror of Check Me Out in the first leg of the Sire Stakes, made an early move for third but then jumped it off. The winning daughter of Cantab Hall scored for Christina Takter, John Fielding, and Louie Camara.
The Cantab Hall-Takter equation again visited Victory Lane in the next cut, with On The Bright Side joining her stablemate as 2-for-2 in the PASS with an easy 1:56.1 triumph. Takter also drove this filly, who as noted is owned by Brittany Farms.
Finishing the day's PASS events, Takter's training triple, and Brittany's owning double was Valdonna, a daughter of Andover Hall whose most impressive statistic was not her 1:54.2 clocking, but her :55.2 back half for driver Ron Pierce. With these connections this filly certainly can make her presence felt throughout the summer.