by Tom White, Red Mile Publicity Director
The Red Mile’s 130th Fall Championship harness meeting will get underway Tuesday afternoon with four divisions of the $402,000 Norman Woolworth Memorial 2YO Filly Trot. Post time is 12:30 p.m. The Red Mile Grand Circuit meeting will continue through Saturday, October 9, with a Tuesday through Saturday schedule. An estimated $10 million will be offered in purses throughout the 10 day race meet. The $500,000 -est. Kentucky Futurity Trot and the $500,000-est. Tattersalls Pace will be raced on the final day, Saturday, October 9.
A total of 40 juvenile trotting fillies will battle in the 2YO Filly Trot division of the Bluegrass Series which honors the late Hall of Fame owner and breeder Norman Woolworth. The race is sponsored by the Arden Homestead Stable, Continental Farms, Thomas Bertmark Jorgen Jahre, Adelaide Skoglund and Margareta Wallenius-Kleberg.
Heading the first $100,500 division is Simpson division winner Soutaine Hanover and Simpson and Hayes Memorial stakes winner Flirtin Miss. Flirtin Miss, trained by Jimmy Takter, is the fastest of the 10 first division starters with her Du Quoin, IL win in 1:56.1.
Unbeaten Coulantine, Kentucky Sires Stakes winner Seducer Hall and New Jersey Sires Stakes winner Four Starz DLH are the early favorites in the second division. Coulantine, trained by Doug Miller, has won divisions of the Reynolds Memorial, Arden Downs and the Pennsylvania Championship. The Brett Pelling-trained Seducer Hall won an elimination of the KY Sires Stakes and was second in the final. Four Starz DLH captured a NJ Sires Stake and was stakes placed in
the Acorn.
Reinvent, who earlier this season won the $450,620 Merrie Annabelle, is the early choice in the third division for trainer Pelling. Kentucky Sires Stakes winner Take The Plunge, Arden Downs and PA Sires Stake winner Traci Spur and Merrie Annabelle Prep winner Hawaiian Delight will also be factors in the outcome.
The fourth division of the Woolworth Memorial is loaded with stakes winners including Standardbred (Delaware, OH) winners CR Calendar Girl and Intrigue Hall, Simpson division champ Miss Possessed, Champaign division winners Caledonia and Thinks Like A Fish, Kentucky Sires Stakes Champion Southwind Catlin, and Review stakes winner Magenta Hall.
Wednesday’s $366,700 Southwind Farm 2YO Filly Pace attracted unbeaten Thereal Ideal and $443,200 Sweetheart Pace winner Up Front Norma.