by Karen Briggs, WEG Media

Campbellville, ON — The odds said it was all about Elusive Desire Friday night, August 21, and the O’Brien Award-winning filly didn’t disappoint in the C$171,300 SBOA Stakes for 3-year-old trotting lasses at Mohawk, cruising unchallenged to the win in a new stakes record time of 1:54.1.

New Image Media photo

Elusive Desire set a stakes record of 1:54.1 in the SBOA Stakes at Mohawk.

Blair Burgess trainee Friendly Amigo, with Burgess in the bike, took the early lead from the far inside with Jody Jamieson tucking Novelty AS into the pocket spot, but soon after Novelty AS made a break and took herself out of the action. By the three-eighth pole, Paul MacDonell sent 1-9 favorite Elusive Desire up from third to take command, and the pair opened up an authoritative two length lead with the rest of the field struggling in their wake.

Friendly Amigo hung on in second until mid-stretch, when she faded to an eventual ninth, and Mario Baillargeon sent Cuddler ahead to capture second, with I’ll Wait For You (Trevor Ritchie) behind her for third, but it was Elusive Desire who finished four lengths in front. She stopped the clock in 1:54.1, shaving three-fifths of a second off the old stakes record set by the incomparable Peaceful Way in 2004.

Elusive Desire, a 3-year-old daughter of Angus Hall, out of the Valley Victory mare Valley Amber, is trained by Mike Keeling for P C Wellwood Enterprises, Bob Fasken, and Charlie Armstrong. This was her seventh win in 11 tries this season and improves her earnings to C$829,714. She was recently third by a mere head in the Hambletonian Oaks, and based on her earnings was awarded a bye to the SBOA Stakes final, giving her a week off during last Friday’s eliminations.

“She really doesn’t get tired,” commented MacDonell. “You ask her at the head of the lane and she usually responds. She did again tonight.

“She loves to race so much I don’t think it really mattered whether she had to race last week or not. She went nine straight weeks and on the ninth week she was just as fresh as she was the first week.

“That’s just the kind of filly she is. She doesn’t do much all week as far as training; I know Mike (Keeling) is pretty easy on her and gives her a lot of paddock time. She does her thing on the racetrack.”

Asked to name Elusive Desire’s best assets, MacDonell didnt hesitate to sing her praises.

“Shes so resilient,” he began. “The trot comes easy to her, she doesn’t work hard at it, and she just loves to race. Behind the gate is the only time she really picks up the lines and goes.

“She and Bella Dolce (who won this stake last year for MacDonell) are very similar. Both of them seem to be dominating their divisions. I think this filly is more reliable than Bella was; she jumped it off a few times when she shouldn’t have and cost herself some money, while (Elusive Desire) I don’t think has ever made a break. She’s a very reliable filly.”

Stakes and track record for Shacked Up in SBOA Stakes

It was a clean sweep for the Bulletproof Enterprises and trainer Tracy Brainard as their fillies were 1-2-3 in the C$171,300 SBOA Stakes for 3-year-old pacing lasses at Mohawk but the finishing order was not what the handicappers had predicted.

The 4-5 favorite Yellow Diamond (Jim Morrill, Jr.) led the field from the three-eighth pole to mid-stretch, but having set sizzling fractions of :26.1, :54.1, and 1:21.3, she could only watch as stablemates Shacked Up (Luc Ouellette) and Kabbalah Karen B (Sylvain Filion) smoked past her in the final strides. The underrated Shacked Up crossed the wire 4-3/4 lengths to the good in 1:49.4, shattering both the stakes record and Mohawks track record for 3-year-old pacing fillies.

“If you just keep my filly bottled up and use her for a quarter of a mile, she can really sprint,” said Ouellette. “She just loves to chase them down. If you can get her covered up and just move at the head of the lane, she’ll pace home in :25 seconds if you want her to.”

Shacked Up, who like her stablemates Yellow Diamond and Kabbalah Karen B, is a daughter of Western Terror, is fresh off a win in the August 8 Ontario Sires Stakes Gold final at Mohawk. With this triumph she has now bankrolled more than C$500,000. The speed mark, needless to say, also demolished her old record of 1:52.