by Tom Kelley, publicity director, Balmoral Park

Crete, IL — Freshman trotting fillies stepped into the spotlight on Tuesday night (September 18) at Balmoral Park as a field of 10 youngsters squared off in the $135,000 American-National Stake.

Balmoral Park photo

Creamy Mimi and driver Andy Miller captured Tuesday’s $135,000 American-National Stake for 2-year-old trotting fillies in a track record time of 1:56.2.

Proving once again that her yearling price of $165,000 may have been a bargain, Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld’s Creamy Mimi continued to impress as she cruised to a 1-1/4 length victory in a track record time of 1:56.2.

The daughter of Conway Hall was hustled away from post position 10 by driver Andy Miller. Neatly tucking in second before the field had reached the midway point of the first turn, Miller had Creamy Mimi right on the back of Illinois bred sensation Spread The Chips (Dale Hiteman) as that filly strolled through an opening quarter in :29.

“With all the horses that made breaks last week I figured there would be a few that would have problems getting out of there again so I really wasn’t worried about having the 10 hole,” explained Miller.

Positions remained unchanged on the backside as the top two fillies opened up an eight length advantage over Judy Luns (Jason Dillander), who was trotting along in third as the field reached the half-mile mark in :58. The highly regarded Bether Always (John Campbell) made a rare break nearing the halfway point, taking her out of contention.

Things slowed down a bit on the final turn but there were still no challenges coming from the back of the pack as the top two rolled by the three-quarter-mile pole in 1:28.

With an eighth of a mile to go a confident Miller took dead aim on the leader with Creamy Mimi.

“I’ve raced against Spread The Chips before and she’s a nice filly but once I tipped my horse off of Dale’s shoulder I was pretty sure she would go right by her,” said Miller.

That confidence was justified as the Gro Formia trained miss swallowed up the pacesetter en route to her third victory in four career starts. Spread The Chips turned in a solid effort to get the place check while Judy Luns was a distant third, 15-3/4 lengths behind the winner.

After shaving two-fifths of a second off the previous track record, which had been held jointly by Southwind Flanders and Belle Of The Ball, Miller had high praise for Creamy Mimi.

“She has been an absolute pleasure to drive,” said a smiling Miller. “You can stop her or start her up whenever you want and she still finishes the mile with plenty of lick. That’s pretty rare for a 2-year-old trotting filly.”

Sent off as the 2-1 favorite after an impressive elimination win, Creamy Mimi returned $6.00, $3.40 and $3.00 while running her bankroll up to $134,600.