from Meadowlands Media Relations
East Rutherford, NJ — Rainbow Blue ($2.40, $2.20, $2.10) wrapped up her three-year-old season with her 20th victory of the year in the fifth race, a $40,000 Mares Open, on Friday night at the Meadowlands.
Rainbow Blue, driven by Ron Pierce and trained by George Teague, Jr., paced the mile in 1:51.2, scoring her eighth win in a row as the 1-5 favorite in her first contest against older mares.
The daughter of Artiscape now has 20 wins in 21 starts this year and earnings of $1,195,010, a single season record for a sophomore filly. Lifetime, she has visited the winner’s circle in 26 of her 28 starts and banked nearly $1.3 million.
Teague, who co-owns the filly with his sister, Brenda, and K&R Racing LLC, all of Houston, Delaware, plans on resting Rainbow Blue until the spring.
“We’re going to turn her out now for four to six weeks,” said Teague. “Hopefully she can start back in March or April. I haven’t mapped out our plans for next year.”
“This is just to convince everybody that she’s the best three-year-old pacing filly that has ever come along,” said Pierce. “She was able to defeat older mares after she beat up the three-year-old fillies this year. This is to convince everybody that she’s the Horse of the Year. I look forward to driving her next year.”
Rainbow Blue’s margin of victory was two lengths over Maybe A Rita ($4.60, $2.10) and it was three lengths to Jet Lag N ($2.10).
In a pair of prep races for the two-year-old trotters in the Fall Final Four on December 4, Motivational improved her record to eight wins in 11 starts to top the fillies in the second race, the Goldsmith Maid, and Diesel Don coasted to his fourth win in seven starts in the third race, the Valley Victory.
Motivational ($4.20, $3.20, $2.60), driven by George Brennan for owner-trainer Kathleen LaMontagne, trotted the mile in 1:58.2 for a half length tally over Lightfoot ($13.80, $8.60). Aeronautess ($13.00) was third by a length and a half.
“She’s got great gate speed and likes it on the front,” said Brennan. “She always keeps going on to the wire and never tires at the end of a mile. We did work on sitting-in in the qualifiers and I can race her that way if I have to. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Solveig (the co-favorite) coming at me. But I didn’t even know where she was. I was able to get right to the front and back down the fractions to my liking.”
Diesel Don ($4.20, $2.60, $2.10) scored a two and a quarter length victory over Penn Stix ($3.20, $2.20) in 1:56.4, a lifetime best for the son of Muscles Yankee who was driven to victory by John Campbell. The trotter races for the partnership of trainer Chuck Sylvester, Neal Goldman of Washington Township, New Jersey and the Having Fun Stable LLC of River Vale, New Jersey.
“He was very good,” Campbell said. “We’ve been happy with him all year. He got sick at Lexington and has been rebounding very strong.”
The $211,800 Goldsmith Maid and the $228,600 Valley Victory share the spotlight with the pacing stakes for two-year-olds, the $237,400 Governor’s Cup for colts and geldings and the $200,000 Three Diamonds for fillies, as the Fall Final Four next Saturday.
In the $35,000 Delvin Miller Memorial Driving Championship Gold Cup, carded as the first race, Dr. Scott Woogen guided Little Man Fred to a neck victory over Racy Star G, driven by Dein Spriggs, in a time of 2:21.1 for the mile and three-sixteenths.
Woogen, a 49-year-old gastroenterologist from Mechanicsville, Virginia, has been competing in the Billings Series for amateur drivers for four years and earned his way into the Miller Gold Cup with a victory in the Billings Eastern Final at Freehold on November 17.
“This is just great,” said Woogen, who grew up in the Bronx and graduated Columbia University and NYU Medical School. “I’m just thankful that I have a nice horse to drive this year. We left good but I didn’t want to be on the front. I wanted to be close but not the lead. I got away third, and I squeezed out at the mile marker. I was able to follow a good horse and squeeze through at the end.”
In the Miller Championship’s Silver Cup, Howard Gelfand won with USA Victory in a non-wagering event, edging out Five Carat Diamond, with William Rhoades in the sulky.