by Charlene Polk, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Berlin, MD — After showing up her female competition Thursday (July 24) at the Delaware State Fair, one first-state filly hopes to beat the boys this Sunday at Ocean Downs.

Seboomook Mao, a 3-year-old Badlands Hanover filly out of the Camluck mare Stonebridge Bliss, will face six competitors July 27 in the third leg of the Budweiser Pacing Series (for horses that had not won two pari-mutuel races before April 2008) at Ocean Downs. The filly is owned, trained and was bred by Bridgeville, Delaware’s Garnet O’Marrow.

“She’s a nice filly,” O’Marrow said. “She was a nice 2-year-old and she came back strong.”

As a 2-year-old, Seboomook Mao compiled a record of 11-1-2-3 and earnings of $16,075, while in 2008 from 11 starts the filly has had three wins, three seconds and two thirds with earnings of $20,155. She took her lifetime mark of 1:56.3 with a 1-3/4 length win at Harrington Raceway on July 24 in a Delaware Standardbred Breeders Fund Consolation.

O’Marrow attributes some of Seboomook Mao’s success this year to tie-back surgery (when half of the larynx is sutured open to restore air flow), which eased the filly’s breathing problems.

“She had some breathing issues,” he said. “She really wants to get into the race and grabs on a little. She can be a handful.”

He said her driver of late, though, Wayne Long, has been getting along well with her. Long will again pilot the filly Sunday at Ocean Downs, where she will start from post two in one of two divisions of the Budweiser Pace.

Although Seboomook Mao is the only horse O’Marrow is racing at the moment, he has high hopes for Seboomook Ya-Boy, the filly’s 2-year-old full brother and another of many horses bearing the Seboomook moniker.

“Seboomook was a place in Maine where I frequently camped,” O’Marrow said. “The name kind of hung on. I have fond memories of it.”

Maine, which is where O’Marrow grew up, is also where the longtime trainer got his start in harness racing. For several years he and his parents lived across the street from a Maine racetrack.

“It developed into my part-time pocket change working there after school,” he said.

Eventually both O’Marrow and his father (Francis O’Marrow) were training horses. In the past, Garnet O’Marrow’s stable has included top Delaware pacers such as Seboomook Warrior (1997, p,7,1:54f, $293,896) and Quite A Tan (1987, p,5,1:52.3, $291,773).

O’Marrow is also an international sales manager for pharmaceutical firm Intervet.