by Rich Fisher, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — It was a Friday night in early May at the Meadowlands and trainer Larry Remmen had a horse in a race in which 3-year-old filly Sandbetweenurtoes notched her first career victory.

By Monday, Brad Grant owned the filly and Remmen became her new trainer.

On Thursday, Sandbetweenurtoes puts her 3-for-3 record this season on the line when she moves into stakes action for the first time in a $75,282 division of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes at Harrah’s Philadelphia. She starts from post four with driver Brett Miller in a field of eight and is the 2-1 morning line favorite.

Remmen will be watching the female pacer a lot closer than he was a few months ago.

“I actually wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to her that Friday night,” Remmen said. “The very next afternoon at the Meadowlands I saw (her then-trainer) Tony Alagna and he said she’s for sale. He knew Brad was always interested in buying better horses and he said ‘I wanted to give you guys the first chance at her.’

“I had hopes that my horse would be a nice filly in that race, but she was no match (for Sandbetweenurtoes). That was the first start Tony raced her. She won that night and we’ve had her the last two starts.”

The trainer made the call to Grant, and the owner put his faith in Remmen.

“I strictly went off what (Alagna and Remmen) thought about her,” Grant said. “Obviously knowing she’s coming from a good barn and good home had something to do with it. They just really liked the filly and that’s how we did the deal.

“We’re on the lookout for good quality racehorses. Him and Tony had been talking and he called me and I basically said if he liked her let’s do it. He said she looks like the real deal.”

It didn’t take long for Remmen to do his research. He got all the information he needed from Alagna and told Grant to watch the replay of the race. Larry went out and jogged the horse and by Monday the deal was done.

This is the first year of real competition for Sandbetweenurtoes. She had some health issues last year and only raced once before she was shut down.

“But they could tell she had a lot of ability,” Remmen said. “When I saw her I knew she was a nice filly, well put together and I knew she wasn’t hurt.

“Last year she showed a lot of ability, She looks like she can be at least a sire stakes filly and hopefully better than that. We’ll know more on Thursday. She’s never had to tackle those kinds of fillies; that will be a different task for her.”

Remmen is hoping to see some good things in Thursday’s race, which also includes 2013 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes champion Southwind Silence. Sandbetweenurtoes’ three previous starts came in conditioned races.

“(Sandbetweenurtoes) is in the majority of the stakes and hopefully she’ll continue on,” Remmen said. “I’ll be very happy if she’s one of the best in the sire stakes.”

The trainer said Sandbetweenurtoes is a well-mannered horse, although she does get a little rambunctious on the track.

“She’s gotten a little aggressive the way we’ve raced her, but she acts like you could race her any way you want,” Remmen said. “We’ve been staying clear of troubles the first two races. We’ve been trying to keep away from any kind of problems.”

Looking at her record so far, problems have been held to a minimum.