Both French Wine and Once In A Lifetime lived to their billing as favourite with victories in the $142,148 third preliminary leg of a Pennsylvania Sire Stakes event for three-year-old males Sunday afternoon (July 2) at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
All victories are memorable, but one of the three triumphs in the $12,600 features at Harrah’s Philadelphia Friday afternoon may stand out a little bit more for one driver.
Michel Heijnen, a horseman from The Netherlands who usually drives only his own small stable of trotters (his previous catch-drive was four years ago), picked up the mount behind a three-year-old filly from trainer Luc Blais and owner Determination – Viva La Deo, a daughter of Somebeachsomewhere out of the $2.2M-winning Rocklamation, a $200,000 yearling. And this was his first-ever drive (in North America, anyway) behind a pacer!
But ignoring all that and any pressure from 3-5 favouritism, Heijnen placed Viva La Deo right behind Ideal In Miracles through fractions of :27.2, :57.4, and 1:25.2, then wheeled her out in the stretch and got the decision by the smallest possible margin in 1:54.2 for the memorable triumph.