Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Oaks Hopefull wins at The Big M

June 7, 2006

Belle of the Ball scored her first win in three starts this year in one of four $22,500 divisions of the New Jersey Sire Stakes for three-year-old trotting fillies, Wednesday night at the Meadowlands. Brian Sears and Belle of the Ball held off Patti’s Gift for a half-length victory in a lifetime best 1:57.2. Armbro Déjà Vu was third.

“I know she has the ability to do what she did tonight,” said Sears, the Meadowlands’ leading driver. “The pace slowed down quite a bit going into the corner, so I was able to go to the front pretty easily. There was a strong head wind down the backstretch, with some slow quarters, but the wind was with us to the finish.”

Belle of the Ball earned $44,914 in 10 starts as a two-year-old. Leased by Joann and Joe Thomson of Chesapeake City, Maryland, she is eligible to the $750,000 Hambletonian Oaks on August 5 at the Meadowlands.

“She trained great all winter,” said the filly’s trainer, Doug Miller. “Her first two starts didn’t go well. It’s a question of where her bottom is, but I think she is a pretty good filly.”