Reply With QuoteGO GIRL! Congrats to Casie & the Crew. Well done!
Idyllic captures rainy Jugette
Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - by John Pawlak, the U.S. Trotting Association
Delaware, OH --- There was no 10-1/4 length victory for Idyllic in the final heat of the $292,350 Jugette as it had been here on Wednesday (September 21) in her elimination at Delaware, but it was a victory nonetheless.
USTA/Mark Hall photo Idyllic held off Rocklamation at the wire to win the 41st Jugette on Wednesday afternoon in Delaware, Ohio.Driven by David Miller, Idyllic saw Rocklamation (Yannick Gingras) spring from the number five post to the early lead, but Miller took the eventual winner to the top just before the quarter pole was reached in :27. From there, Idyllic kept the lead, but unlike her win in the first elimination she was unable to shake her pursuers. After fractions of :56.3 and 1:24.4, Rocklamation finished willingly in second and Swinging Beauty, who also moved to the outside to pick up the chase after the three-quarter pole, finished third, just ahead of Strike An Attitude.
The winning time was 1:54 and the winning margin was a neck.
The winner of the 41st Jugette is owned by trainer Casie Coleman's West Wins Stable, Joseph and Michael La Cova and John Campagnuolo. The filly, who finished second to See You At Peelers in last year’s divisional Dan Patch voting, has now won five of 12 this year and 13 of 21 and $1.27 million in her career.
“Yeah there was (an anxious moment in the stretch),” David Miller said. “Yannick came out of the hole and I wasn’t for sure if he was going to get her (Rocklamation) there. My mare still felt like she had some pace and we fought her off.
“We put a Murphy blind on her because in the first heat she was running in too much. Just adding that little bit of equipment made a big difference. It definitely got the job done.”
“I did think I had the best filly, and she did have to go two heats, and it’s pouring-down rain and you never know what to expect,” Casie Coleman said. “It’s a horse race and the horse that was second raced great in her elimination and it was tight at the finish. Douggie and Gregg McNair’s horse raced great in the elim. It’s a horse race and anything can happen. I’m always confident. I can have a horse 99-1 and I still think I can win. You have to be like that.
“(I’ve used) pretty much the same program (with Idyllic) I did with Western Silk. Like Western Silk, she’s a tie-up mare so I train her quite often. She double jogs every day so she is used to going out quite often. I train her a lot of slow trips just to deal with her tie-up issues. I pretty much trained her identical to Western Silk. For sure it’s because she’s high strung. So was Western Silk.
“I think from the time (Idyllic) was halfway through her 2-year-old season I double jogged her and that’s how I can manage her and she likes it.
“See You At Peelers was only beaten in the one start where Idyllic beat her. She was disqualified from first but I still count that as a win in my mind. She’s a great filly (See You At Peelers) and you can’t take that away from her, but I’m coming closer and closer to her and hopefully I can do that.
“I’m going to Lexington next and she has a race next weekend and then another race in Lexington and then she will come home and get ready for the Breeders Crown. I don’t think Peelers is paid into Lexington so I’m assuming the Breeders Crown is when I will meet with her again.
“Tomorrow (Jug Day) is the big, big day. This is part one, but tomorrow will be really, really awesome.
“It is unbelievable. When I was standing here a year ago, it was raining -- not this bad -- but raining, and it was like a dream come true. Now I’m going to try for a three-peat (next year in the Jugette).”
A pair of eliminations were contested earlier in the day.
Idyllic came away third, moved up resolutely on the backstretch the first time and then came away from the pack in the second turn to post an easy win in the $58,470 first elimination.
USTA/Mark Hall photo Idyllic posted an easy win in the first elimination of the Jugette.Driver David Miller steered the daughter of American Ideal-Magical Dreamer confidently to a 1:53.1 victory, in which they defeated Whats New Pussycat (Yannick Gingras) and Myluvmylife (Brian Sears). Tu Sei Bella (Ron Pierce) finished fourth. The winning margin was 10-1/4 lengths. “She was very good; very strong,” David Miller said. “She had to work a little bit to get to the lead, but she was fine after that. I let her coast through the lane. (Winning trainer Casie Coleman) told me she had worked her over a half-mile track and she had worked real well. (Casie) does a very good job and I have a lot of confidence in her so I wasn’t worried about that. I was just worried about having to use her so hard to get there. I’m going to watch this next one and see how it goes, but I still like my chances.”
The opening quarter-mile was timed in a snappy :26.3, indicative of a track drying out after morning-long rain and intermittent afternoon showers, but the final quarter, dominated by the winner, was timed in :30.2 -- indicative of the need to keep something in reserve for the second and final heat. Only Latin Lyric (Tim Tetrick) failed to advance from the opening elimination.
“I knew she would be pretty good,” Casie Coleman said. “But Myluvmylife is a pretty tough filly and the Burkes just got her so I was pretty worried about her. I was just talking to Dave (Miller) and he said she was real strong at the wire, but she was kind of running in a little bit on the turn, so I’m probably going to make a little bit of an equipment adjustment so she goes a little straighter in the final. He never pulled the plugs and he was on top by, I think, nearly six, so he saved her for the second heat.”
USTA/Mark Hall photo Swinging Beauty scored a 1:54.2 victory in the second of two eliminations for the Jugette.William Switala and James Martin’s Swinging Beauty ignored wet footing and a torrential downpour and posted a 1:54.2 victory in the second of two eliminations for the $292,350 Jugette here this afternoon. Doug McNair drove the winner, who swung three-wide in the stretch and came on to defeat Strike An Attitude (Dave Palone), Rocklamation (Yannick Gingras) and the 4-5 favorite, Pretty Katherine (George Brennan), in that order. The winning margin was three-quarters of a length, and the top four advanced to the second and final heat.
Rocklamation took the early lead from the rail and the horses raced in post position order through fractions of :27, :56.2 and 1:24.1. On the final turn, Strike An Attitude swung to the outside, picked up the tempo and appeared to be a winner, but the Gregg McNair-trained winner mounted an even more dramatic closing kick to take the biggest share.
“I thought she would figure in with these,” Gregg McNair said. “It was her first time on a half (-mile track) so I didn’t know, but we had trained her over one, but never as fast as this. We just let her go around there.
“I don’t think (the rain) hurt her any. She has aluminum shoes on and some of these guys that don’t have them on may be in trouble.
“She has a good pedigree and is a nice mare. I think there’s one (horse) to beat (Idyllic), and I think now we get the one or two hole so if we can’t beat the top one hopefully she will get second or third. After this we will take her down to Lexington and then on to the Breeders Crown.”
Swinging Beauty (Art Major-Stunning Beauty) won for only the third time in 14 tries this year.
-- Kimberly French also contributed to this report
GO GIRL! Congrats to Casie & the Crew. Well done!
Casie Coleman is the trainer I aspire to. I have never seen horses looked after like she looks after hers. Talk about first class care!!
...and Purple Jesus lands another Jugette winner. GO DAVE!
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