by Tom Kelley, publicity director, Balmoral Park

Crete, IL — Illinois conceived and foaled trotting fillies made their first stakes appearance of the season on Wednesday night (April 22) at Balmoral Park as a full field of 10 sophomores slugged it out in the $15,000 Trotting Tilly Stake.

After closing out her 2-year-old season with an impressive win in the ISOBA Super Sale Stake back in November, Paula Smith and James Runyan’s Fox Valley Lover picked up right where she left off with an impressive one length victory in 1:58.4.

Unhurried away from the gate, driver Dale Hiteman elected to settle along the pylons in fourth as Tropical Trixie (David Martin) and Chesney (Homer Hochstetler) battled through an opening quarter in :29.4. Hiteman then maneuvered the daughter of Vaporize-Love You More to the outside where she began to reel in the leaders. Moving to within a head of the pacesetting Tropical Trixie, Fox Valley Lover was cruising along easily as she rolled into second as they reached the half-mile mark in 1:01.2. Quickly swallowing up the leader on the far turn Fox Valley Lover moved out to a one length advantage as she cruised by the three-quarter-mile mark in 1:30.3.

Through the lane the Joel Smith trainee extended the lead to two lengths as a first over Luna Marker (Brandon Simpson) tried to cut into the margin. That effort would prove to be futile however as Fox Valley Lover unleashed a wicked :28.1 final quarter to seal the deal. Luna Marker was forced to settle for the bridesmaid role while Tropical Carprice (Dave Magee) was an even third.

After posting five wins and more than $86,000 in earnings last season Fox Valley Lover appears to be all set to put up some more eye catching numbers in her second season. Coming off a third place finish in her qualifier Fox Valley Lover was the second choice in the wagering returning $6.60, $4.00 and $2.60.

The excitement continued on through the night as a record Pick 5 pool of $275,123 had the track buzzing. The opening leg went to 6-1 shot Hot Shot and Tyler Buter. Things really became interesting in the second leg as Cams Little Dragon, the longest shot on the board at 27-1, rallied to win by a head for driver Marcus Miller. The third leg also produced a nice priced winner as 11-1 shot Miss Peyton Place and driver Brandon Simpson hit the wire first. With a majority of the players knocked out of the pool after the first three legs Tale Of The Dragon and Ridge Warren gave hope to those still lucky enough to be alive in the Pick 5 by winning race eight at odds of 3-1.

The final leg of the Pick 5 produced the only winning favorite in the sequence as 7-5 favorite Spectacular Cam and driver Brandon Simpson rewarded their legion of backers. The winning combination of 8-1-3-2-3 returned a whopping $18,192.70 for a mere 50 cents to those lucky or skilled enough to select all five winners.