Canada�s Two-Year-Old Trotting Filly of the Year in 2008, Elusive Desire, dug down deep to score a 1:54.4 decision in her $128,584 assignment for the tandem of driver Paul MacDonell and trainer Mike Keeling.
The daughter of Angus Hall-Valley Amber tucked into an early three-hole while Yursa Hanover sprinted the field to the quarter pole in :26.4. MacDonell rolled Elusive Desire to the outside on the way to the half, with Yursa Hanover still in charge in :55.4. She also hung up the three-quarter clocking of 1:25.1 while Elusive Desire clearly laboured around the final turn. It looked as though Yursa Hanover was going to finish off the gate-to-wire attempt, but Elusive Desire summoned up all of her toughness to find a second wind en route to posting the 1:54.4 decision. It was just over a length back to runner-up Yursa Hanover. Keep The Spirit was third.
�She came up with a stone bruise and she�s got a sore foot,� claimed trainer Mike Keeling. �I didn�t know how she�d be and she just showed me that she has the heart of a good one. I was going to get the hot water ready to bath her and then I checked down the stretch and I thought �wow, she�s really gutting this one out�. She has one more Gold Series at Kawartha Downs and then the Breeders Crown after that. Soundness wise she�ll tell me, and the Breeders Crown is what I really want to go after and the Super Final after that. She only needs to improve a little bit and she�ll be back to herself again.�
P C Wellwood Enterprises Inc., Charles
Armstrong and Robert Fasken share ownership
on the talented filly, who won for the
eighth time in 13 starts this season. The
lion�s share of the purse boosted her career
earnings to $894,006.
Fresh off her win in the $$327,985 Hudson
Filly Trot at Yonkers Raceway,
Windsong Soprano doled out a Thursday
evening whooping on the fillies she faced in
her $130,584 division.
The daughter of Windsongs Legacy-Muscling In tracked cover from second over in the back half of the mile before vaulting off cover at the head of the lane and powering away to a 1:55.1 decision for driver Steve Condren. The Bob McIntosh pupil drew off to win by nine lengths over Magic Sassy. Serenas Genie rounded out the top three.
�We basically only raced for a quarter of a mile, so it was kind of decent� said driver Steve Condren. �She felt very good; we really walked the third quarter and she was muscling up good and I�m just glad we got a very easy race into her because she�s had a tough campaign the last few weeks. She was very handy, they walked up to the three-quarter pole and it turned in to a final quarter sprint and she can sprint with the best of them.�
Lothlorien, the nom-de-racecourse of Susan Grange of Cheltenham, ON, owns the 10-time winner who has picked up seven of those wins this season. Her lifetime bankroll swelled to $811,551 with the triumph.