by Ellen Harvey, Harness Racing Communications
East Rutherford, NJ — Bold And Fresh and George Brennan pulled off a longshot win at 24-1 odds in the $750,000 Hambletonian Oaks for 3-year-old trotting fillies on Saturday (August 6) at the Meadowlands in the time of 1:53.1.
USTA/Mark Hall photo
Bold And Fresh pulled off the upset at 24-1 to win the Hambletonian Oaks Saturday at Meadowlands.
It was the second Hambletonian Oaks win for driver George Brennan and the first for trainer Doug Miller and owner Donald Bartling of Timonium, Md.
Bold And Fresh sat well off the early pace set first by Wincinnatti (Yannick Gingras) before being quickly overtaken by Sashay (Ron Pierce) who held the lead to the :55 half and the 1:23.3 three-quarters. As the field turned for home, Sashay made a break and ran inside the field, leaving Jezzy (Tim Tetrick) to briefly inherit the lead.
It was a cavalry charge from there, with Crys Dream (Luc Ouellette) pressuring Jezzy, but Bold And Fresh emerged strongest from the pack for the win by a half-length over a fast closing Lady Rainbow (Rick Zeron). Heavily favored Crys Dream was third and Jezzy finished fourth.
“She’s a nice little horse, there’s not much to her as you can see,” Brennan told Donna Barton Brothers of the NBC announcing crew. “I took a shot and I was able to sit in to the top of the turn; when I got her out at the top of the stretch I felt like she would just go by. Doug (trainer Miller) told me there’s time to help her where she got rough on me and I helped her through it and she showed what kind of professional she is.”
“This is a really versatile filly,” said Miller. “She can leave, she can rally. She had a dream trip today and I knew going down the backstretch if he (Brennan) didn’t have to use her too much, she’d be tough to beat in the stretch.
“She was hard to train last year, not much when we left Florida. She got sick so she didn’t get a lot of starts, but we thought all along she was a quality filly.”