by Bill Heller, for the New York Sire Stakes

Saratoga Springs, NY — Fillies can be finicky; trotting fillies even more so. Two-year-old trotting fillies require the patience of a saint.

Pascal Beaulieu and his wife Sandy aren’t saints — yet. But they have figured out Makeherownway, Robert Rosenheim’s 2-year-old, home-bred trotting filly they broke and trained on Rosenheim’s farm in Stillwater, N.Y.

Makeherownway has done well enough to earn a spot in the $150,000 New York Sires Stakes Final, part of the $1.2 million New York Night of Champions at Yonkers Raceway on Saturday, September 15.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Pascal Beaulieu said. “She always showed speed and ability, but she was throwing her head a lot in training over the winter. And she got sick. We lost like a month with her.”

Beaulieu was lucky he didn’t lose more than that. “She turns her back in the stall,” he said. “She’ll turn and try to kick you. She never got me. I don’t know if she really means it, but I don’t want to take a chance. Nobody can catch her except my wife.”

Makeherownway will help kick off the lucrative evening as the 2-year-old trotting fillies are the first final that heads to post as race two. Beaulieu will be escorting the filly from the outside post eight.

Originally from Quebec City, Beaulieu worked for John Stark, Jr., one of Saratoga Gaming and Raceway’s outstanding driver-trainers, for six years before venturing on his own. Beaulieu prefers using catch-drivers on most of his horses, but he made an exception with this daughter of Hambletonian winner Malabar Man.

“With young trotters, I drive them myself,” Beaulieu said. “I don’t want to abuse them. I want to bring them along slowly.”

His filly, though, made quick progress after debuting in a qualifier at Saratoga on June 15, finishing third. After being nosed in another qualifier, she made her pari-mutuel debut in a leg of the New York Sires Stakes at Buffalo Raceway on July 8. She broke twice and lost by 30 lengths.

In another qualifier at Saratoga, she won for the first time, and then headed back to stakes company, finishing a respectable fourth in the $30,538 Thompkins-Geers Stakes at Tioga Downs on July 20. She returned to Tioga Downs a week later and won her first race, a $22,982 division of the Sires Stakes, in a snappy 2:00.3.

Returning to Saratoga, she finished second by a head in a $41,896 division of the Sires Stakes at the beginning of August, before finishing fifth in another Sires Stakes race at Tioga.

Next up was Yonkers on August 27. Makeherownway won a $49,245 division of the New York Sires Stakes in 2:01.4 before having the misfortune of drawing post eight for a $72,518 Sires Stakes division at Monticello Raceway. Like Yonkers and Saratoga, Monticello is a half-mile track, which makes winning from the eight post mighty difficult for any horse. She raced well at Monticello on September 3, finishing third, upping her earnings in her first year of racing to $58,567.

Beaulieu gives most of the credit for Makeherownway’s progress to his filly, who seems well-named.

“She came on on her own,” he said.

That, as well as her winning race at Yonkers, bodes well for her start in the $150,000 Final.

“This is a nice bunch of fillies,” said Beaulieu.

Without Beaulieu’s patient handling, Makeherownway wouldn’t have been one of them.