by Tom Kelley, publicity director, Balmoral Park

Crete, IL — Illinois conceived and foaled trotters were back in the spotlight on Wednesday night (April 20) at Balmoral Park as a field of seven diagonally gaited sophomores squared off in the $9,000 Trotting Tilly Stake for 3-year-old fillies.

Balmoral Park photo

Powerfulconnection and driver Brian Carpenter teamed up to win Wednesday night’s $9,000 Trotting Tilly Stake at Balmoral Park.

Picking up right where she left off in her sophomore debut Dixie Sue Graham and Steve Poore’s Powerfulconnection notched her second straight victory as she cruised to an easy 1-1/2 length triumph in a career best of 2:00.1.

Reserved in the early going as Friendwithbenefits (Robert Smolin) trotted out to an early advantage through splits of :30.4 and 1:01.3, driver Brian Carpenter had the daughter of Powerful Emotion-Alpine Queen in fourth before moving up first over as the field neared the half-mile mark.

Trotting like a freight train the Gerald Hansen trained miss blew right by her rivals on the far turn, quickly opening up a 1-1/4 length advantage as she hit the three-quarter mark in 1:31.

The issue was never in doubt from there as Powerfulconnection proceeded to open up a five length advantage before being put on idle for the final eighth of the mile by her pilot. Bonnie’s Star (Mike Brink) unleashed a nice :28.2 final quarter to rally for the place money while Fox Valley Ruffian (Dean Magee) wound up a distant third, 7-1/4 lengths behind the winner.

After posting four wins in 13 starts last year while campaigning mainly on the fair circuit, Powerfulconnection has looked like a different horse this year, opening her second season with a pair of powerful wins on the pari-mutuel scene.

With four of the seven starters sent off between 2-1 and 3-1 in this evenly matched event, Powerfulconnection returned $7.80, $3.80 and $3.00 to her backers.