by Tom Kelley, publicity director, Balmoral Park

Crete, IL — Freshman trotting fillies stepped into the spotlight on Wednesday night (September 24) at Balmoral Park as a total of 20 Illinois conceived and foaled youngsters battled in a pair of $12,500 Lady Lincoln Land Stake eliminations. The top five finishers in each division get the chance to battle it out in next Wednesday’s final for a purse of $134,000.

Balmoral Park photo

Queen Creek and driver Dave Magee used the passing lane to win the first of two Lady Lincoln Land Stake eliminations.

In the first division, Delbert and Ruth Burkett’s Queen Creek took advantage of a perfect trip and a late miscue by a hard charging Fox Valley Strata to post a 3-1/4 length victory in 2:00.2.

Neatly tucking into the pocket early in the first turn for driver Dave Magee, Queen Creek was more than content to sit on the back of the pacesetting Lane’s Game (J.D. Finn) as that filly trotted through splits of :29.3, 1:00.4 and 1:31.2.

After repelling the first over challenge of longshot Morning Gloria (Trenton Watson), Lane’s Game began to tire as a host of challengers closed in on her by the mid-stretch call. Queen Creek was looming boldly in the passing lane while Fox Valley Strata (Tyler Buter) was uncorking a big late move from eighth at the top of the stretch.

Just when it appeared as though Fox Valley Strata was going to blow by them all disaster struck as the filly made a rare break. That opened things up for Queen Creek who continued to storm up the passing lane to get her third win in 10 career starts. Lane’s Game held on for second while an off stride Fox Valley Strata was third. Unfortunately, Fox Valley Strata was cited for a lapped on break at the wire by the judges and was moved from third down to fifth. That moved Tropical Trixie (David Martin) from fourth to third and Itzadenali (Sam Widger) from fifth to fourth.

The homebred daughter of Elk Creek-Darts Queen, who is trained by Del Burkett, returned $6.80, $3.80 and $3.40.

In the nightcap, Kevin Dixon and Robert Taylor’s Miss Vickie came up with a very impressive one length victory in a lifetime best of 1:56.3. That clocking was just one-fifth of a second off the track standard set by Creamy Mimi in 2007.

Getting away fourth for driver Brandon Simpson the daughter of Valley Victor-Willy Nilly was content to save ground in mid-pack as Tropical Caprice (Dave Magee) and Fox Valley Lover (Dale Hiteman) took turns on the engine through splits of :29, :58.2 and 1:28.

Moving first over midway around the final bend Miss Vickie started to draw closer to the top pair as the field turned for home. Methodically chewing up ground in the lane the Robert Taylor trainee finally collared a stubborn Fox Valley Lover in the final sixteenth of a mile to post her fourth win in seven career starts. Fox Valley Lover turned in a solid effort to finish second while Tropical Caprice was third. Overt (Josh Sutton) finished fourth while the last spot in the final went to fifth place finisher Maple Grove Sarah (Sam Widger).

Dispatched at odds of 3-1, Miss Vickie returned $8.80, $3.40 and $2.60 as she ran her lifetime earnings up to $45,430.