by Ray Cotolo, for The Red Mile

Lexington, KY — Circling by Frost Damage Blues and Lady Shadow as they battled around the far turn, Prairie Sweetheart (Matt Kakaley) advanced to the front and defeated her older rivals to win the $112,500 Allerage Farms Filly & Mare Pace in 1:49.1 on Sunday at The Red Mile.

USTA/Mark Hall photo

Prairie Sweetheart won the Allerage Farms Filly & Mare Pace in 1:49.1.

Lady Shadow set the pace, going fractions of :26.4 and :54.4 before receiving pressure from Frost Damage Blues, pulling first over from fourth, into the far turn. The two matched strides through a 1:22.2 third-quarter before Frost Damage Blues took the top.

Lady Shadow retreated at the pylons while Prairie Sweetheart moved three wide, powering by Frost Damage Blues at the eighth pole. Prairie Sweetheart finished in front of Bedroomconfessions and Venus Delight, who stormed down the center of the track to finish second and third, respectively.

Prairie Sweetheart, a 3-year-old filly by Royal Millennium out of the Masterman mare Taylors Lady, remained undefeated in 12 starts with her lifetime-best win. She has earned $155,024 for owner Let It Ride Stables Inc. and trainer Ross Croghan. Driven by Matt Kakaley, she paid $14.80 to win.

“We recently purchased her,” Ross Croghan said. “I got a call from a friend of mine up at Pocono, and he said ‘I just saw a filly that looked fantastic.’ I watched the replay, and I had to agree with him, so I watched her again the next week, and the next week, and I just thought this filly has something special.

“We actually purchased her the day before I was going to leave for the (Little Brown) Jug. I was going to be away for a month and I didn’t want to be away from her for that amount of time, so I brought her with me.

“We gave her a qualifier here last week just to see how she was and Matty (Kakaley) said she was super and that there were two seconds up her sleeve if he ever wanted to use it. I spoke to the owners, and they’re both here enjoying the week in Lexington, so they opted to pop up with the supplement and watch the race, and it worked out in our favor.”