Trillions Hanover will have a big crowd rooting for her in Saturday night’s (Aug. 31) Lady Maud at Yonkers, and not only because she is the 7-5 morning line favourite in the $122,224 stakes.
Trillions Hanover is owned by VIP Internet Stable and a number of partners who are new to the game own her through the fractional ownership group.
“We’ve got several newer partners on her,” said Ed O’Connor, VIP Stable’s founder and managing partner. “We ended up getting several folks who are not our normal big hitters ,and they have been ecstatic with her. She’s been a fun horse all the way around and it’s not often you get a horse that’s first or second six out of seven times as a two-year-old, races huge as a three-year-old, puts in a good mile just about every single time. She’s been really, really popular with our partnership group.”
In addition to VIP Stable’s fractional owners, principal partners Falcon Racing and Paul Lang co-own the filly. A $20,000 yearling at the 2017 Harrisburg sale for trainer Tom Fanning, Trillions Hanover went 4-for-7 at two, winning the $40,000 Pennsylvania Stallion Series final at Harrah’s Philadelphia last September. This year at three, Trillions Hanover has competed in a host of Grand Circuit events, including the Fan Hanover, Lynch, Mistletoe Shalee and the Shady Daisy. She has earned $130,968.
“It is the absolute best advertising we can possibly have. Seeing a fractional ownership group is involved in these big races really gives credibility to what we’re doing,” O’Connor said. “It shows that we’re able to pick out good horses and put partners in a spot where they can have a lot of fun.
“And we really appreciate when it happens with a horse we bought as a yearling. There’s been several horses who we’ve done really well with, but they’ve been high-dollar purchases, we kind of already knew they were really good,” O’Connor continued. “In situations like that, you’re kind of in a no-win situation; if you do well, you were supposed to do well, if you do bad, you look really bad. This is the opposite. Yearlings, you just never know and when they turn out to do pretty good, it’s just really exciting.”
Although Trillions Hanover’s two victories this season came in overnights at The Meadowlands, the Somebeachsomewhere daughter has been competitive on the Grand Circuit. She made the Fan Hanover final with a third-place finish in her elimination at Mohawk June 8 and finished second in the Lynch consolation at Pocono June 29. However, her biggest performance came on the Hambletonian Day undercard.
Off a lifetime best 1:50 win at The Meadowlands July 26, Trillions Hanover started as a 15-1 shot in the Shady Daisy Aug. 3. Starting from the inside, she saved ground as the pace developed and stormed home with a :25.1 final quarter to finish second by a neck to Tall Drink Hanover in a 1:48 mile.
“That was super. All year, we knew she was really good, still maturing, has a ton of speed, and seems to have a really good late kick,” O’Connor said. “For whatever reason, we just had never been able to get a really good trip with her. When she was coming off cover, the pace had been slow. One or two times she had been on the front, she went really fast fractions, so we never really had a shot where things were going her way until Hambletonian Day.
“She was able to sit in, let a lot of the horses mix it up, up front and she came flying at the end,” O’Connor continued. “I thought she was going to get home and in that kind of time, a (1:)48 mile is huge. Coming home in :25.1, I don’t recall having a horse that’s done that before. It was really exciting, and we were really thrilled with what she did. It’s a good testament to how good she is and how good of a job Tom Fanning has done with her so far.”
Trillions Hanover comes into the Lady Maud off two defeats in Pennsylvania Sire Stakes behind star filly Warrawee Ubeaut. Although Trillions Hanover has never raced on a half-mile track, O’Connor said it wasn’t by design and thinks she will handle it well.
“I think it’s a coincidence. She’s not a huge horse, so I think she’ll fit in there fine. She’s Pennsylvania-sired and she raced a light season last year, so there was really no reason to head over to Yonkers and she’s actually pretty lightly raced this year,” O’Connor said. “This is our first opportunity to head over there, and we’re looking at her possibly being a good horse for Yonkers if we end up keeping her next year. That’s just a good spot to make money and if she’s as good on a half-mile track as we think she’s going to be, we think that’s really going to be a good spot for her.”
George Brennan will drive Trillions Hanover for the first time in the Lady Maud, and the pair will start from post four. Their five rivals include JK American Beauty, who is 3-1 from post one and enters with two wins and another four placings in New York Sire Stakes company this year.
Bestseller Hanover won the Lismore Pace earlier this year for Jason Bartlett and Scott Blackler. She was ninth in the Shady Daisy and won a $17,000 overnight at Pocono last out, and is 4-1 from post five. Blue Ivy will start from post two and ships in from Kentucky after off-the-board finishes in Sire Stakes from tough post positions. Annie Hill and Abuelita Hanover complete the lineup.
“It’s kind of an unusual situation. We’ve raced her three times in Sire Stakes and we’ve gotten beat by the best three-year-old filly in the country, and then we got to a more prestigious race like the Lady Maud and we’re pretty significantly down in class,” O’Connor said. “Not that there’s any bad horses in here at all, but there’s no Warrawee Ubeaut in here.
“So, we think it’s a tough race, she’s got to race well, but she’s been racing against the very best three-year-old fillies in the country in just about every start this year. If she can work herself out a trip, we hope we can come away with a big check at the end,” O’Connor continued.
O’Connor hopes to add another Yonkers stakes victory to VIP Stable’s resume. The group co-owned two-time George Morton Levy Series winner Keystone Velocity.
“We love racing at Yonkers. We probably race at Yonkers as much as any place,” O’Connor said. “That’s been one of the tracks we’ve looked at as the place we want to go, even back when they were just starting to get the slots there. It’s a prestigious track, this is a prestigious race, and we’re really excited to be in there.”
Saturday night’s card also features the $500,000 Messenger Stakes Final, the $500,000 Yonkers Trot, and the $124,334 Hudson Filly Trot. The $46,000 Open Handicap Pace supports the stakes-laden 12-race card. First post time is 6:50 p.m.
(SOA of New York)