Encore Encore will look to follow up his Valley Victory elimination win with a victory in the $718,000 final on Saturday at Woodbine Racetrack.
The two-year-old colt trotter, driven regularly by Tim Tetrick, has won seven of 12 races this year and earned $218,387 for breeder/owner Bob Key of Pennsylvania.
"He's a very nice colt. So far, he's done pretty well for us," trainer Richard Gillock said. "He goes out and gives you a hundred percent every time he goes out to race. He may not always win the race, but he's always going to be right there. Hopefully, he saved a little for this week. I think we have a pretty good shot."
With the exception of his first race, Encore Encore (Broadway Hall-Keys La Nina) has never been beaten by more than three-quarters of a length. In last week's Valley Victory elim, he won by a neck over favorite Federal Flex in 1:56.1. Judge Joe, who has won six of 10 races this year and finished no worse than second, won the other elim by a length over Striking Lindsey in 1:57.1.
Encore Encore earlier this season won elims for the William Wellwood Memorial and Peter Haughton Memorial. He was third in the Wellwood final and scratched sick from the Haughton.
"That was a pretty hard phone call to have to make, especially as good as he was in the elimination," Gillock said about scratching from the Haughton. "Fortunately, he bounced back from that."
Last month, Encore Encore won a division of the Bluegrass Stakes in 1:55.4, which was one-fifth of a second slower than his lifetime best mark, which he established in his Haughton elim. Following the Valley Victory, the colt has the Matron Stakes and Breeders Crown remaining on his schedule.
"Timmy likes the colt a lot, so that helps a lot, having him drive him steady for me," Gillock said. "It means a lot when you have a horse like him that you've bred and raised and watched grow up. It makes it nice."
$718,000 Valley Victory Final
Post – Horse – Driver/Trainer
1. Syrinxian - R. Pierce/S. Elliott
2. Judge Joe - D.R. Ackerman/D. Ackerman
3. Encore Encore - T. Tetrick/R. Gillock
4. Select Yankee - T. Ritchie/J. Czernyson
5. Triumphant Caviar - L. Ouellette/C. Beaver
6. Striking Lindsey - B. Sears/R. McNair
7. Federal Flex - J. Jamieson/J. Gillis
8. Hurrikanebiggeorge - J. Campbell/J. Gillis
9. Meyer Winsky - R. Schnittker/R. Schnittker
10. Cantab's Pride - J. Moiseyev/I. Fisher
To view Saturday's entries, click here.
(HRC)