Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Jugette Notes

for Monday, September 17, 2007

Elusive Prey Nabs Rail in Jugette Elim
Trainer Kevin Johnson, who conditions Jugette starter Elusive Prey, says his filly has only one problem.

“Her problem is that she was born in the same year as Southwind Tempo,” the 47-year-old Johnson laughed. “We’ve finished second to Southwind Tempo four times now. However, we’ve made a good deal of money finishing second to her.”

Owned by Joe and Joann Thomson of Chesapeake City, MD and Johnson’s assistant, Rebecca Williams, Elusive Prey will start from the rail in the second (Race Ten) of two $48,000 Jugette eliminations Wednesday afternoon at the Delaware, Ohio county fairgrounds.

Johnson, 46, has been conditioning Standardbreds for over two decades and currently sports a barn of 40 at the Kristie Leigh training center in Goshen, N.Y.

“I bought this filly for $30,000 at Harrisburg based on her pedigree,” the Adrian, Mich., native stated. “Looks to me aren’t that important, as long as they don’t have a leg in the wrong place. I think breeding—the bloodlines, that’s what’s important in the end.”

Johnson could be right. Elusive Prey is a daughter of Western Hanover, out of the Goalie Jeff mare Duck Duck Goose, who has also produced half-siblings to the Jugette starter in: the 28-race, stakes winning Abba Daba Doo (by Cam’s Card Shark) p,4,1:49.1 ($541,037); Duneside Perch (by Cam’s Card Shark) p,2,1:50.2 ($160,325); the 2007 freshman All Quacked Up (by Dragon’s Lair) p,2,1:54.2h ($88,148); and Eric (by Cam’s Card Shark) p,1:52.3s ($34,953), among others.

“At 2 we didn’t push her at all,” Johnson said of Elusive Prey. “We raced her in the Kindergarden Series because we felt it was a little softer than the Pennsylvania Sires Stakes. I think that’s why she’s come back so strongly this season. We really didn’t beat her up at 2.”

Elusive Prey scored six wins at 2 in 11 tries, with one second and a pair of thirds—earning $55,999 for her connections. Her freshman mark of 1:55.4 came in a division of the Kindergarden, when she won at Vernon on Aug.31, 2006 in near wire-to-wire fashion with Larry Stalhbaum at the lines.

“She’s the type of filly that requires very little training,” Johnson remarked. “She jogs well and seems to enjoy her work.”

This year Elusive Prey has a 4-6-4 record with $217,907 in earnings upon entering her Jugette challenge on Wednesday, and gives Johnson his first Delaware experience.

“One thing that has really helped her is we started using the glue-on shoes on her,” Johnson said. “She has very shelly feet and regular steel or aluminum plates just weren’t working for her. So we tried these glue-ons, and they’ve been great. We couldn’t ever see that she was unsound somewhere, but I kind of thought all along her feet were bugging her.”

Elusive Prey captured a pair of Pennsylvania Sires Stakes earlier this season, and a $40,910 Geers on July 23. Her top mark of 1:52 came on July 28, when she roared to a five and ¼ length victory in a Sires Stakes at the Meadows.

“My main goal with her is to keep her sound and healthy,” Johnson said. “She has acclimatized very well to her surroundings here and having the rail in a race like this doesn’t hurt either.”

Appleoosa Hanover
Much to the delight of her caretakers, the mother-daughter team of Debbie and Brandy Jamieson, Appleoosa Hanover has draw the rail in the first of two $48,000 Jugette eliminations on Wednesday afternoon at the Delaware, Ohio county fairgrounds.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled with the post, or to be here,” noted Debbie, who is also the mother of driver Jody Jamieson, who is set to pilot the sophomore daughter of Western Hanover for trainer and father Carl Jamieson.

“Of course, we’re not really thrilled with how our Jug horse drew,” added Brandy and Debbie in tandem.

The Jamiesons are referring to Reserve Forces—another family sophomore pacer who nabbed the eight-hole in the first of two $76,800 Little Brown Jug eliminations on Thursday afternoon.

Appleoosa Hanover—a big rangy mare with a bright star and a pleasant eye—brings a bankroll of $454,871 with her to Delaware, and most recently finished victorious in a conditioned race at Mohawk on Sept. 7, pacing in 1:52.1 and winning by three lengths with Jody at the lines.

“We got down here Sunday. We shipped in from Princeton, Ontario, at our family farm,” Debbie said. “She seems to enjoy her new surroundings and is doing well.”

Brandy jogged the big brown mare five miles Monday morning over the Delaware’s famed half-mile oval for the first time, a process she’ll repeat Tuesday morning.

“She’s a perfect lady on the track,” Brandy explained. “But in the barn, it’s a different story. She’s great if you’re working on her—grooming or picking out her feet, but once you start getting her ready to jog or train, she becomes a bully. She wants to get out there and go. Once she hits the track, she’s all business and just settles right down and jogs like a kitten.”

That recent victory at Mohawk was Appleoosa Hanover’s first win of 2007 in 15 starts. She also has a quartet of third-place finishes to her credit and $21,343 in her coffers.

“She keeps herself in good shape and really enjoys her work,” Debbie added.

Appleoosa Hanover wears no boots and is simply rigged with a blind bridle, a pair of line poles, with aluminum shoes in front and a pair of steel swedges behind.

“She’s just that nice,” Debbie said. “My husband liked her breeding and he felt she was put together really well, so that’s why he bought her as a yearling.”

Trainer Carl had paid just $32,000 for the young filly at the 2005 Standardbred Horse Sale at Harrisburg. She is the first foal out of the Artsplace mare Appleonia-Art p,2,1:54.3 ($67,658).

As a freshman Appleoosa Hanover raced exclusively over Canadian ovals, racking up five wins, three seconds and a pair of thirds in 12 starts last year. She amassed $433,528 in earnings and recorded a mark of 1:53.3 over a sloppy Mohawk racetrack when she won the C$679,050 She’s A Great Lady final on Sept. 9, 2006 with Jody at the controls.

“This is her first start in the United States,” said Brandy. “As a family, we couldn’t be happier. It’s great to have a horse in both the Jug and Jugette.”

Driver Jody, however, also has North America Cup and Simcoe Stakes winner Tell All—who drew post three—in the same Jug elim as Reserve Forces.

“We understand that Jody has to drive Tell All in the Jug elim,” Debbie said. “We’re very proud of him and for his success with that horse.”

No Rest for the Rose
There’s no rest for Toni Rose. Second trainer to Steve Elliott, Rose has been everywhere this year. She was in the winner’s circle when Donato Hanover won the $1.5 million Hambletonian and most recently stood beside Southwind Tempo in the Freehold winner’s circle on Sept. 3, when the sophomore filly captured the $144,325 Shady Daisy in 1:53.

Toni shipped to the Delaware, Ohio county fairgrounds on Sunday, along with Southwind Tempo, who is the 8-5 early morning line favorite in the first of two $48,000 Jugette eliminations Wednesday afternoon.

“She’s happy, she’s playing and eating well,” Toni said of the daughter of Bettor’s Delight. “I jogged her four miles this morning—the same as she does everyday—and should couldn’t have been nicer. But then, this mare never does anything wrong.”

Toni, 46, gave the dark brown filly a loving pat before dumping in her lunchtime feed in her stall at the Jugette barn on Monday.

“She’s amazing,” Toni noted of the $793,854 winner. “A lot of people don’t know this, but when she was a baby she put her right front foot through a glass window and tore it all up. They had to cut some of it away and it was nasty, but you’d never know it now. There’s no sign of it and it’s never affected her in any way. She’s never even been sore on it.”

Southwind Tempo won all of her three freshman starts, earning $10,950 for owners Toby Lynch Jr., and Wayne Chrebet of New Jersey. When Lynch got hurt earlier this season, he turned the training duties over to Elliott and crew.

$782,904 later, Southwind Tempo has dominated the sophomore pacing mare division in 2007—snatching up victories in the $60,000 Tender Loving Care, the $74,015 Helen Dancer, the $242,620 Lismore, the $250,632 Jimmy Lynch (in a career best of 1:49.3), the $220,250 Lady Catskills, and the $58,000 Tarport Hap, among others.

“She’s just a fast, nice animal,” Toni said. “There’s really nothing else to say about her than that.”

Toni, a native of Rothsay, Minn., has been working with Standardbreds since 1986. After procuring her associates degree in animal science from the University of Minnesota, Toni took a job with Michigan-based conditioner Gordon Norris. She traveled back and forth from Michigan to Florida for ten years as an assistant to Norris, and then took a few years off to condition a small stable of her own.

In 2000, she hooked up with Elliott, and has stayed their since.

“Steve’s a great guy to work for,” Toni said. “He’s great with the horses and great with the people. Working for Gordon, was great too. He’s a very talented, sharp horseman. Both guys are quite, and they don’t do a lot of personal PR—but then again, they don’t have to—their horses do the speaking for them.”