by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — When he was looking through the sales catalog for the August 2011 Blooded Horse Sale a filly named Real Deal Babe caught Rob Harmon’s eye. After the gavel went down for $5,700, he brought her home, gave her some time, and then began the lessons for her professional career. But this young miss, who was renamed Andie Sophia after co-owner Jordon Farkas’ daughter, was not very amenable to anyone touching her head.

“She was a bearcat,” said Harmon. “We had to twitch her to break her because she didn’t want anything on her head. We had to tie her up just to bridle her and then one day she was just fine with it. We went from there and then when we got her trained down in 2:15 or 2:20 we found out she never really got tired. There was no bottom to her.”

A daughter of Like A Prayer and the Promising Catch mare Promising Deal, Andie Sophia is owned by Harmon Racing Stable, Comfortably Numb Stable and Adam Friedland. She has earned $180,661 from a career record of 7-3-2-1 and captured the $250,000 Kentucky Sire Stakes final on September 9, 2012, in only her third career start, with a powerful move after being eighth at the half-mile pole.

Fred Brown photo

The lightly raced Andie Sophia has banked $180,661 in just seven lifetime starts.

Her 2-year-old season consisted of a maiden breaking victory in her first start on August 19 in a $15,000 Sire Stake contest in Lexington, a second by a neck on August 30, under the same conditions at the same oval, her triumph in the final and then a third place finish at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in the $53,150 Standardbred on Jugette Day.

“After the second time I qualified her she had a little filling in her ankle and we found a five percent tear so I gave her some enzyme injections and time,” Harmon said.

She started off this season with a fourth, her only off the board finish, at the Meadowlands on May 3 in a $20,000 sophomore filly race, followed that up with a second in a $24,758 John Simpson Memorial event on May 10 and then came home first with a :27.3 last quarter in the $57,300 Historic-Coaching Club Trotting Oaks at Tioga Downs on June 16.

In three starts this year, Andie Sophia has collected $36,439 with one victory and one second place finish and set her lifetime mark of 1:54.4 in her last performance.

Her next start will be on Saturday (June 29) in the lone elimination for the $175,624 Hudson Filly Trot at Yonkers Raceway. She will leave from the nine hole and is 4-1 on the morning line.

“I hope things go well this week,” Harmon said. “She only has to beat one and we got the perfect trip at Tioga last time. Dan O’Mara’s filly (True Day Dream) is a nice filly and she cut the mile. If the trip would have been different she certainly could have beaten us.”

In many of her races Andie Sophie has been on the front, but her conditioner, who now resides in Ramsey, N.J., feels she is actually much better coming from behind.

“Her drivers have put her on the front, but I think she likes coming from the back a lot better,” he said. “I don’t tell them what to do, it’s working so why would I?”

After the Hudson, the filly could appear at the Meadowlands, however, another Kentucky Sire Stakes crown is the immediate goal of her connections.

“We can go there but I want her ready for Lexington,” Harmon said. “She really likes to race and I pick spots for her where she can make money without taking too much out of her to keep her fresh.

“I raced her up at Delaware last year just to see how she could get around on a half, because we train her on a five-eighths and she did well. It wasn’t like she was racing against the Kentucky-breds and she held her own.”

When Andie Sophia is done with her time in Lexington, she will appear in the Buckette, the Circle City and then the American-National to complete her 2013 campaign.

“Kentucky isn’t going to be easy and we will have to go up against Dan O’Mara’s filly again,” Harmon said. “I wanted to put her on the half last year to see how she was and she did good. We just want to point her to spots to keep her fresh and where she can compete.”

Here is the field for the Hudson Filly Trot elimination:

Post-Horse-Driver-Trainer-Line
1-Caneel Hall-Jordan Stratton-Ray Schnittker-5-1
2-Miss Panthers-Brent Holland-Matias Ruiz-6-1
3-Cha Cha Magic-Jason Bartlett-Staffan Lind-20-1
4-Southwind Cocoa-Daniel Dube-Linda Toscano-6-1
5-Royal Assets-Ray Schnittker-Ray Schnittker-5-1
6-Lady Broadway-Eric Goodell-Chris Oakes-8-5
7-Time To Kill-Jim Pantaleano-Ross Croghan-12-1
8-Global Beauty-Pat Lachance-Noel Daley-8-1
9-Andie Sophia-Larry Stalbaum-Rob Harmon-4-1