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Test Of Faith, the fastest two-year-old of 2020, showed she’s ready for whatever her opponents may throw at her with a sensational qualifying victory on Tuesday (May 25) at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
The Art Major filly, trained by Brett Pelling for Melvin Segal, Kentuckiana Racing Stable and Eddie Gran, was reserved off early fractions of :28.2 and :58.2 by driver David Miller, sitting third, four lengths off at the half. Test Of Faith moved up to second, still six lengths off the lead, by the 1:26 three-quarters, but she roared her individual last quarter in :26 to be a 1-1/2 length winner in 1:53.1. Test Of Faith now has two winning qualifiers in preparation for 2021, a year after her 1:48.4 win at Lexington was quicker than even “the boys” among freshmen.
Young and developing horses are in abundance in the Mid-Atlantic area, and Harrah’s Philadelphia had $12,600 quad-features for their various divisions on Friday.
Kiss The Captain won her second straight start – her previous one came on August 27 of last year – as she paced to a new mark of 1:51.4, with Andrew McCarthy gunning her through wild fractions of :26.1, :54.2, and 1:22, successfully bottoming out the field. Trained by Andrew Harris for A Harris Racing LLC and Martin Budkey, Kiss The Captain is a Captaintreacherous three-quarter sister to Kissme On the Beach – who still holds the world record she set almost five years ago for this winner’s division, three-year-old pacing fillies on a 5/8-mile oval.
After taking the Friday night feature with 7-5 favorite Betalady, driver Corey Callahan, aka “The Captain”, also scored in Saturday night’s (Feb. 27) marquee event, winning the $27,500 Winners Over/Open Pace with 11-1 outsider Shnitzledosomethin at The Meadowlands.
Not only did Callahan drive well, he had a big decision to make well before the race even began. Should he drive Shnitzledosomethin, or Lyons Steel, whom he guided to the winner’s circle in the weekly feature last week?
“It was a tough choice,” said Callahan. “Lyons Steel has been good to me the last few weeks, but [Shnitzledosomethin’s trainer] Dylan Davis is one of my main guys and his horse has a lot of back class. I mean, he’s won one out of every three races lifetime and he showed what he is tonight.”
The 2021 harness racing season got underway on Saturday afternoon at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, and while the temperature hovered just above 20°F, the action was hot on the racetrack, at the claiming box, and if your horse was driven by Matt Kakaley.
Featured during the curtain-raiser were the first preliminary legs of the Game Of Claims Pacing Series for two divisions: horses with a $25,000 base tag and horses based at $15,000. The claiming prices rise a little in the next two preliminaries which may be part explanation for the incredible total of 41 claims during the card. All told, $825,000 worth of horseflesh went home to a new barn after the races as hopefully the right horse for their purchasers to chase after their $50,000 and $30,000 Championships respectively on March 6.