by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Ken Weingartner

Freehold, NJ — Trace Tetrick is ready to make his Breeders Crown debut Friday night at the Meadowlands, but the 28-year-old driver is looking to treat the occasion like any other race.

Tetrick drives Color’s A Virgin in the second of two $25,000 Breeders Crown eliminations for 3-year-old female pacers on Friday. Color’s A Virgin, whose connections paid $62,500 to supplement to the event, starts from post two and is the 8-5 morning line favorite in the seven-horse field.

The top five finishers from each elimination advance to the $593,750 Breeders Crown final, which will be contested Nov. 21 at the Big M.

USTA/Mark Hall photo

Trace Tetrick and Color’s A Virgin won the Jugette in September.

“It will be exciting,” said Tetrick, who was Hoosier Park’s leading driver in 2012 and sits atop the standings again this season. “I know she’ll do her job and as long as I do mine I think we’ll have a good showing.

“It’s a big race, but all in all it’s just another race. That’s how I have to look at it. You can’t really drive any differently. You’re not going to do anything unusual. You can’t change things up.”

There is no reason to change. Since getting behind Color’s A Virgin in June, Tetrick and the filly have teamed for 12 wins and a second-place finish in 13 starts.

Along the way, Color’s A Virgin won the Jugette at the Delaware County Fair in Ohio, where trainer Brian Brown is based, as well as the Nadia Lobell Stakes and Indiana Sire Stakes Super Final, both at Hoosier Park.

“At first she was a little shaky, but she’s matured a lot and only gotten better every week,” Tetrick said. “She’s stayed very consistent all summer. She hasn’t had to do a whole lot of shipping. She’s raced mainly in Indiana and when she raced in the Jugette she didn’t need to get on a trailer because Brian trains right there in Delaware.

“I think a small thing like that probably helps in the end.”

Color’s A Virgin is a daughter of Always A Virgin-Full Color, bred and owned by Bruce Trogdon’s Emerald Highlands Farm. She has won 17 of 25 career races and earned $684,322.

Her Breeders Crown elimination also includes Weeper, Uffizi Hanover, Sandbetweenurtoes, and Precocious Beauty.

Weeper, who has earned $424,561 this year for trainer Kelly O’Donnell and owners Joe and Joann Thomson’s Bay Pond Racing Stable, enters the Breeders Crown off a win in the Matron Stakes. The daughter of Allamerican Native-Pleasant Yet Bad has won eight of 15 starts this season.

Multiple-stakes-winner Uffizi Hanover, a Jimmy Takter-trained daughter of Well Said-Up Front Dragonfly owned by Al Libfeld, Marvin Katz and Sam Goldband, won last year’s Breeders Crown for 2-year-old female pacers. The last filly pacer to capture Breeders Crown trophies at ages 2 and 3 was My Little Dragon in 2005 and 2006.

Sandbetweenurtoes (Somebeachsomewhere-Al’s Girl) has won eight of 10 races this year, including the Mistletoe Shalee at the Meadowlands in July, for trainer Larry Remmen and owner Brad Grant. Precocious Beauty, a daughter of Art Major-Precious Beauty trained by Gregg McNair for owner Jim Avritt Sr., received the 2013 Dan Patch Award for best 2-year-old female pacer.

“I know it’s a tough group, but that filly of mine has been holding her own all summer,” Tetrick said. “Everything we’ve asked of her, she’s done.”

Tetrick hopes she can do it again the next two weekends in the Breeders Crown. Of course, the Tetrick name is no stranger to Breeders Crown success. Tetrick’s older brother Tim has won 13 trophies in the championship series.

“I feel very fortunate for being in the Midwest to get a ride like this,” said Tetrick, who has won 354 races and established a career high with $4.56 million in purses this season. “She’s come from here and I’ve been able to stay with her and go to a show like this.

“You’ve got to be in them to win them.”

* * *

Sayitall BB, a third supplemental entry to the Breeders Crown for 3-year-old female pacers, is the 2-1 morning line favorite in the first of the two eliminations. A daughter of Tell All-Challo B B, she is trained by Ron Burke and owned by Burke Racing and Weaver-Bruscemi LLC.

She has won three consecutive starts since returning from a summer respite.

* * *

For John Butenschoen, happiness is seeing Happiness in action.

A 2-year-old female pacer, Happiness faces seven foes in the second of two Breeders Crown eliminations Friday night at the Meadowlands. Butenschoen trains the filly, which he co-owns with breeder Dr. John Egloff’s Vieux Carre Farms.

World Wide Racing Photos

Happiness was a 1:53.1 winner over Ideal Nuggets in the Historic-Debutante at Harrah’s Philadelphia.

Happiness drew post eight in her Breeders Crown elim and is 20-1 on the morning line. She has won three of five races, including a division of the Historic-Debutante Stakes, and earned $31,483.

Her career got off to a late start because of a hairline fracture in a rear pastern bone, but Butenschoen has held the filly in high regard.

“She’s a real big, strong-looking mare,” Butenschoen said. “We liked her a lot (in the winter). It was disheartening when she came up sore on us. I dropped all of her early stakes races. I swam her for six or seven weeks and started bringing her back slowly.

“I figured if we got her there, OK, we could kind of see what we had for next year.”

A daughter of Rocknroll Hanover-Panevolence, Happiness won her first three starts, including the 1:53.1 victory over stakes-winner (and Breeders Crown rival) Ideal Nuggets in the Historic at Harrah’s Philadelphia, before going off stride in her next race at Vernon Downs. Last week, she faced mostly 3-year-old female pacers and finished fourth after leading to the opening quarter in :26.4.

“Her second lifetime start at (Philly) was kind of a big eye-opener,” Butenschoen said. “For a 2-year-old filly to do what she did (win in 1:52.4) was pretty good.

“We got in a bad spot up in Vernon. I don’t know what happened, but she ended up running over a wheel or something and got an interference break. She raced back last week and put in a decent effort. She stepped out of their pretty hard and just got caught late.”

Divine Caroline, a stakes-winning daughter of Rock N Roll Heaven-Loving Caroline from the stable of trainer Joe Holloway, is the 2-1 morning line favorite in Happiness’ elimination. She is owned by Val D’Or Farms, Ted Gewertz, Rojan Stables and Michael Ouriel.

Undefeated JK She’salady is the 4-5 choice in the first elim, followed by Sassa Hanover at 2-1. JK She’salady, a daughter of Art Major-Presidential Lady, is unbeaten in 10 starts for trainer Nancy Johansson and breeder/owner 3 Brothers Stables.

Sassa Hanover (Rock N Roll Heaven-Sayo Hanover) has won nine of 11 races for trainer Ron Burke and owners Burke Racing, The Panhellenic Stable, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, and Larry Karr.

The top five finishers from each elimination advance to the $500,000 final on Nov. 22.

“We’re kind of seeing what we got,” Butenschoen said. “I think she can step up and go with these horses. I don’t know if she can compete with the likes of JK She’salady, but that’s why we put her in, to find that out.”

* * *

It might have taken a while, but trainer John Bax has gotten the best kind of “stubborn” from 2-year-old female trotter Stubborn Belle.

“She’s a lot like her name, she’s a fighter,” Bax said. “You need that to have a good horse.

New Image Media photo

Stubborn Belle has won five of 12 starts this year, with earnings of $448,354.

“But it took a while to get on the same page with her. She was pretty single-minded. At first, you had to do things her way. As the year has gone on, she’s gotten a little more manageable. But there sure was a learning curve with her. She’d always rather fight than switch.

“It’s frustrating sometimes, but when it goes right it’s pretty good.”

Stubborn Belle starts from post seven in the second of two eliminations in the Breeders Crown for 2-year-old female trotters. The top five from each elim advance to the $500,000 final on Nov. 21.

A daughter of Taurus Dream-Musetta Hanover, Stubborn Belle is owned by Al Libfeld and Bax’s Parkhill Stud Farm. She has won five of 12 races, including the Peaceful Way Stakes, and earned $448,354, a total good enough to lead all 2-year-old female trotters and trail only colt Habitat.

She enters her Breeders Crown elimination off a second-place finish to Smexi in the Goldsmith Maid.

“A lot of times it’s a deal with the females that you have to let them think they’re boss, and usually they are,” Bax said. “It’s a fine line.”

Stubborn Belle went off stride in her first two races, but has since won five of 10 starts and finished on the board a total of eight times.

“She’s big and strong,” Bax said. “She actually looks like a colt. There’s nothing petite about her. Hopefully down the road she can keep it going.

“At the end of the day, she’s been pretty good to me.”

Wild Honey, who has won nine of 10 races and finished second in her only loss, is the 4-5 morning line favorite in Stubborn Belle’s elim. Wild Honey, a daughter of Cantab Hall-U Wanna Lindy, is trained by Jimmy Takter for owners Christina Takter, John Fielding, Herb Liverman and Jim Fielding.

She heads to the Breeders Crown off a win in the Matron Stakes on Nov. 6 at Dover Downs.

Multiple-stakes-winner Mission Brief, a daughter of Muscle Hill-Southwind Serena, is the 3-5 morning line favorite in the first elimination. She has won seven of 11 races for owners Burke Racing, Our Horse Cents Stables, J&T Silva Stables and Weaver Bruscemi LLC.

She is the fastest 2-year-old trotter in history, thanks to a 1:50.3 win in October at The Red Mile, but has gone off stride in all four of her losses.