by Ellen Harvey, HRC, a division of the USTA

Locked in a duel down the stretch with Enhance The Night, My Little Dragon gave driver Brian Sears his fourth winner of the night in the $250,000 Classic Series Final for pacing mares in 1:58.1 for the 1 1/16ths mile race on Saturday night at The Meadowlands.

Mind Boggling was first off the gate to make a try for the lead, but it was Ideal Weather that got to the top by the quarter mile marker in :27.4 and stayed there to the :56.3 half-mile marker. At the 1:23.4 three-quarters, Ideal Weather still had a grip on the lead but was being hotly pursued by Enhance the Night (Tim Tetrick). By the top of the stretch, Enhance The Night had made the lead by a length but My Little Dragon was bearing down on the outside and wore down the leader to win by a head in 1:58.1

Noel Daley trains the 5-year-old daughter of Dragon Again for owner Adam Victor and Son Stable. “She had a throat operation at Cornell and been good every start this year,” said Daley. “She hasn’t had a lot of luck, but when she finds it, she can do anything now that she’s breathing properly, she’s a great old mare.”

“She’s the type of mare you build a farm around, “ said Adam Victor, Jr. “That’s one of the reasons we bought her. We’re pointing her to the Breeders Crown. We’re in the game for the Breeders Crown, especially for mares.” Victor expects she will race next year but then start a new career as a broodmare.

Victor indicated that their stable’s champion older trotter Mr. Muscleman is, “Back in training. We gave him time off, he has his issues, but we’re going to give him one more shot to race by the end of 2008, so hopefully we’ll see him in the next few months.”