Stubborn Belle certainly enjoyed her time in the Bax barn during her racing career, and after five foals one of her offspring looks to be on a path to similar success from those same connections.
An O'Brien Award winner in 2014, Stubborn Belle (pictured above) banked nearly $700,000 in her on-track career for owner Al Libfeld and trainer John Bax. Libfeld has bred the mare only to Muscle Hill, and the result from that 2020 mating is filly Stubborn Chee. Libfeld has retained ownership, and entrusted the development for this youngster to Matt Bax. Stubborn Chee made a break a week ago, but she was well-behaved and impressive during the Friday (July 14) session of qualifiers at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Bax sent the filly to the front in her second qualifying appearance, and Stubborn Chee didn't disappoint with her performance. After early fractions of :29.4, :59.4 and 1:29.1 to front her foes by some eight lengths, Stubborn Chee cruised home under wraps in :29.3 to trip the timer in 1:58.4 some five lengths better than her closest rival, Draw The Line (Tyler Jones).
On the pacing side of the ledger, Reigning Jade provided visions of green for her connections after a wire-to-wire win in 1:55.1 as the fastest pacing mile of the morning among the freshmen. A $180,000 Harrisburg yearling, Reigning Jade (Captaintreacherous - Abbijade Hanover) is the second foal from her dam, a sister to the accomplished Aracache Hanover and to the dam of multiple world champion Allywag Hanover. Bob McClure was at the controls for trainer Shawn Steacy and owners Hudson Standardbred Stable of Hudson, Que. and Mark Steacy of Lansdowne, Ont.
The full video stream from Friday's session is available below.
For results from the qualifying session, click the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park (Qualifiers).