by Carol Hodes, for the SBOA of New Jersey

Manalapan, NJ — One of the two fillies Cat Manzi drove to victory in the elims will be the morning line favorite in the $80,000 Helen Smith Final on Friday, August 21, at Freehold Raceway.

Manzi was not ready to make a commitment on Tuesday when post positions were drawn but will do so by scratch time on Wednesday morning.

The Helen Smith, which is carded as Friday’s sixth race, is for New Jersey-sired 3-year-old trotting fillies and is sponsored by the Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New Jersey.

Hall of Famer Manzi scored elimination tallies last Friday with One Tough Girl in 1:58.1 in the first $10,000 division, the third race, and with Princess Lindsay in 1:58.2 in the second division, the fifth race. Both fillies are by New Jersey’s super-sire Muscles Yankee, who is represented by four of the eight finalists.

The George Dennis trained and driven Rapsong by Windsong’s Legacy collected the third division victory, the ninth race, in 1:58.4.

Princess Lindsay, who had the lead at every call and scored a one length victory over Lady In The Wind in the elim, will have post two in the final. Lady In the Wind, a daughter of the late WIndsong’s Legacy, drew the rail.

Princess Lindsay is trained by Matthew Butcher, Jr., who is the co-owner with Neal Oksenberg. Herb Liverman is this filly’s breeder, and she sold for $17,000 at the Harrisburg Sale. Unraced at two, she has four wins and one third in eight starts and earnings of $17,850.

One Tough Girl, who will leave from post five, picked up her first win in seven starts this year in the Helen Smith elim and improved her lifetime record to three wins, five seconds and two thirds from 17 starts for earnings of $147,340.

The Chuck Sylvester trainee is owned by Melvin Hartman, Herb Liverman and David McDuffee. Liverman is the filly’s breeder. She sold at the Harrisburg Sale for $155,000.

The Manzi-Sylvester-Liverman team won the 2008 Helen Smith with Muscle Shirt, also by Muscles Yankee.

The other elim winner was Rapsong, who improved her record to four wins and four thirds in 14 starts this year and 16 of 27 in-the-money lifetime for career earnings of $132,496. She drew post six in the final.

George and Tina Dennis Inc. and the Ask W Stables Inc. purchased the filly for $15,000 at the Lexington Selected Sale. Her wins this year include a New Jersey Sire Stakes division on June 3 at the Meadowlands and the Lady Suffolk on May 8 at Freehold.

The Helen Smith stakes record of 1:56.2 was set by Marla Bar, a daughter of Malabar Man, in 2002.

PP-Horse-Sire-Driver-Trainer
1-Lady In The Wind-Windsong’s Legacy-David Miller-Joseph King
2-Princess Lindsay-Muscles Yankee-Cat Manzi-Matt Butcher Jr.
3-Gabby’s Gambol-Muscles Yankee-Trond Smedshammer-Trond Smedshammer
4-Graceful Sister-Yankee Glide-David Miller-Norm Parker
5-One Tough Girl-Muscles Yankee-Cat Manzi-Chuck Sylvester
6-Rapsong-Windsong’s Legacy-George Dennis-George Dennis
7-RS Giggles-Revenue S-Steve Smith-Karen Garland
8-Allamerican Phoebe-Muscles Yankee-Yannick Gingras-Ron Burke