Wilkes-Barre, PA — Warrawee Ubeaut and driver Yannick Gingras held off last second chargers to win the $600,000 Breeders Crown for 2-year-old pacing fillies on Saturday night (Oct. 27) at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.

World champion Warrawee Ubeaut adds a Crown to her resume. USTA/Mark Hall photo.

On the sloppy track, the leader at the first quarter was Queen of the Pride (Tony Hall) at :26.2 who was soon overtaken by St Somewhere (Matt Kakaley) and then by Warrawee Ubeaut at the :54.2 half.

Gingras kept the daughter of Sweet Lou on the lead through the 1:22.4 three-quarters and was on the lead in deep stretch when she was threatened by encroaching Prescient Beauty (Doug McNair) on the inside and Zero Tolerance (David Miller) on the outside.

The margin of victory was a half-length, Zero Tolerance was second and Prescient Beauty third. The winner returned $4.

“Last week I drove her about as bad as a horse could be driven,” said Gingras.  “I told the girl who looks after her I’ll get the job done this week. I was very confident. The race didn’t play out the way I thought it would, but we just moved with the flow. It’s unfortunate [the bad weather], but it is what it is, we’re all racing in the same conditions and usually the cream rises to the top.”

Warrawee Ubeaut is trained by Ron Burke for owners Burke Racing, Phil Collura, Silva, Purnell & Libby and Weaver Bruscemi.

“It was a weird race, how it set up,” Burke said. “Usually you’re not moving from seventh to first from the quarter, but I think Yannick recognized an opportunity to put other horses in bad spots and made a good move. She didn’t pace home that great, but she fought to the wire and had been used hard. It’s a victory. I think it shows she’s a resilient horse and down the road she will be a very, very good horse.

“I’m torn. She has the Matron and the Three Diamonds. I’m definitely skipping the Matron. I’m 50-50 on the Three Diamonds. I’ve got to decide what I’m doing. I might shut her down, I might go to the Three Diamonds.”

Joe Holloway was pleased with Zero Tolerance’s second-place finish.

“I was happy,” he said. “The post kind of hurt us. I thought my filly could race and win, but you knew it would be who got the trip. Warrawee Ubeaut got a little bit better trip than we did. But no excuses, you’ve got to race them. She got stung a little bit the first quarter, :26.2 is not easy. It’s not like it’s a super-fast track. But everyone had to go over the same track. Overall, I’m happy with my horse’s performance and I’m happy with her year.”