Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

CC Stacy Takes $90,000 American National

July 19, 2005

CC Stacy (#7) captured the American National Stake in 1:52.4
at Balmoral Park on Tuesday night. Halle Go Lightly (#5) was
second.

CC Stacy romped to her second consecutive win for driver Tony Morgan in American National competition Tuesday night at Balmoral Park. This time her 1:52.4 clocking came in the $90,000 American National Stake Final for two-year-old pacing fillies.

The daughter of Matt’s Scooter is conditioned by Robert Harmon for owner Chuck Campbell of Blissfield, Michigan and now has a pair of wins, two seconds and one third in six career starts. The time of 1:52.4 eclipsed the prior record of Loyal Opposition’s 1:53.2 mark in this stake, and was the first freshman American National victory for driver Morgan.

Morgan had CC Stacy off the gate quickly and battled Spanish Rosey to a :28.1 opening panel, before taking the lead. Things remained unchanged to the :56.4 half (:28.3), but going to the three-quarter marker Dale Hiteman had Halle Go Lightly out and moving first over, and then quickly cleared the leaders to 1:24.3 (:27.4) .

"I was a little bit disappointed going into the race tonight," Morgan said. "When I was scoring her down she was on one line pretty good and had some discharge coming out of her nose. She didn’t really feel as peppy as she had the week before."

Morgan was content to sit behind the hard-trying Halle Go Lightly through the lane, but when the pair reached the open stretch, he simply spoke to his filly, and she exploded, besting Halle Go Lightly by a length.

"She’s a bit aggressive leaving the gate, and I wish she was a little quieter leaving that she is," Morgan added. "She goes out of there really hard and you have to be careful with her for the first couple of steps. After that, she settles right down."

"My intent was to be up close throughout the mile to control the pace a little bit," Morgan said. "I wanted to make Seekman’s mare (Halle Go Lightly) have to work hard. I think that my mare would have been just as good if I had kept her on the front end. We probably wouldn’t have set those kind of fractions, but she still would have been fine."

"I knew we were going pretty sporty out there," Morgan added. "It was good to follow Dale (Hiteman, driving Halle Go Lightly) through the stretch and my horse just sat there, and relaxed pretty well. It gave her a good breather."

Spanish Rosey (Brent Holland) finished third behind Hall Go Lightly in the American National, while Lady N Diamonds (Joe Anderson) nailed down fourth place honors. This victory helped CC Stacy push her career earnings to $59,300.