by Tom Kelley, publicity director, Maywood Park

Melrose Park, IL — Sophomore pacing fillies will take center stage on Thursday night (June 11) as a field of eight Illinois conceived and foaled distaffers will look for starting spots in one of Maywood Park’s signature races, the $100,000 Filly Maywood Pace, which will take place on Friday, June 19. The top six finishers in the ninth race will be joined by Native Hotspur and Honey B Skipalong who earned byes into the final based on their 2009 earnings.

The elimination match-up figures to be a heated affair from start to finish with several of these 3-year-olds having a better than average chance of toting home a victory.

Violet Stake elimination winner Park Lane Rhythm has been accorded slight favoritism in the morning line at odds of 5-2 as she leaves from post position four. The Homer Hochstetler trained miss was victimized by an outside post and a tough trip in the final of that event but still managed to rally from ninth to finish fourth, less than two lengths behind the winning filly. This durable daughter of Cole Muffler already has 30 career starts under her belt, hitting the board in half of those efforts while earning more than $43,000 for owner Shirley LeVin.

The powerful Rucker-Engel Stable will send out the twosome of Cane’s Z Tam and Honey’s Luck in the elimination and this coupling is a close second choice in the morning line at odds of 3-1. While the former has yet to find the winner’s circle in her first six starts this year she is hard to overlook after a freshman season in which she won eight of 11 starts and earned nearly $40,000 while taking a mark of 1:53 in Springfield.

Her stablemate comes into Thursday night’s battle off her best effort of the year as she cruised to a wire-to-wire victory in a 3-year-old event at Balmoral Park in 1:53.4. The daughter of Sportsmaster ran into some tough luck in the Violet final prior to that making a break in the late going after looking like a winner with just over a sixteenth of a mile to go.

Cane’s Z Tam and Honey’s Luck will start from post positions one and seven, respectively.

L & L Devisser’s My Heart Was True has been facing easier to start her sophomore campaign but she comes into this test sporting a perfect three-for-three record which includes back-to-back scores here at Maywood Park. The Nick Giberson miss has shown the ability to win from on or off the pace and she figures to garner plenty of support at the betting windows when she leaves from post position two.

Rounding out the field are Smashy Cerise, a Violet elimination runner-up who fell victim to a tough first over trip in the final; Miss Olivia, a lightly raced daughter of Cole Muffler who is fresh off a 10-1/4 length romp in 1:54.2 down in Springfield; She’s A Pegase, a rapidly improving homebred who finished a strong third in the Violet final; and Kiss My Josie, who owns six career wins and has hit the board in 11 of 15 lifetime starts.