Gordon Waterstone

Lexington, KY — The Nancy Takter-trained 2-year-old filly trotter Selfie Queen will be headed shortly to Woodbine Mohawk Park for the Sept. 25 Mohawk Million, but first she has a start on Sunday afternoon (Sept. 19) in the $250,000 Kentucky Sires Stakes Championship final at The Red Mile.

The race is one of eight KYSS Championship Series finals to be contested on the 10-race card (first post 1 p.m.), with the other two events being $50,000 KYSS Commonwealth Series finals. The remaining six Commonwealth finals will be raced on Monday afternoon (Sept. 20).

In addition to Selfie Queen, who will be driven by Dexter Dunn from post three (race seven), Takter will also send out American Beauty from post seven with driver Yannick Gingras in the KYSS final for freshman filly trotters.

One noticeable absence from the race is the undefeated Venerable, who won her lone KYSS appearance but earned enough points to rank fourth and secure a spot behind the starting gate. However, Venerable also will start in the Mohawk Million, and trainer Nifty Norman elected to skip the KYSS final and keep the filly in Ontario after she won the Peaceful Way last Saturday night (Sept. 11) at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Selfie Queen comes into the KYSS final with four wins in seven starts and $76,250 in earnings. Amanda Stephens photo.

Takter said having just six days between the KYSS final and the Mohawk Million is of little concern to her, noting that Venerate won last year’s inaugural Mohawk Million six days after capturing the KYSS final for 2-year-old male trotters.

“It’s been two weeks since (Selfie Queen) has raced so I’m really not that concerned about it,” said Takter. “Venerate raced six days back last year and won the race, and he won from the 10 hole. So I’m not that worried about that.”

As for her spot in the Mohawk Million, Selfie Queen was selected by a three-member panel as the filly representative of the two slots purchased for $10,000 by EquineX for the buy-in race for first-year trotters.

“You paid $400 in May to be one of the horses their panel picked from,” explained Takter, the 2020 Dan Patch Trainer of the Year. “EquineX gets 10 percent back of whatever she earns. Then they will do a lottery of the horses that weren’t chosen. The horses that weren’t chosen then split the 10 percent of what she earns.”

A daughter of Muscle Hill-Lady Lakewood, Selfie Queen comes into the KYSS final with four wins in seven starts and $76,250 in earnings for owners John Fielding, David Anderson and Robert Leblanc, who paid $170,000 for her as a yearling (as Lakewood Manor) from breeder James Wilhite Jr. She won three of her four KYSS preliminaries, including a career-best 1:51.2 in the third leg on Aug. 23, which was preceded by a 12th-place finish in the leg won by Venerable when she made a break in the final turn while in tight quarters.

“She’s been really good since she won that last race at The Meadowlands in the leg of the Kindergarten (1:54.2 on July 23),” said Takter. “The one race she ran (in the KYSS leg) she got jammed up, and if you could have one race back and have a re-do, that would have been one of them. She was really good that day and on her game, and I think if she would have found racing room she would have given Venerable a run for her money.”

American Beauty has two wins in nine starts and $78,824 in earnings. Amanda Stephens photo.

As for American Beauty, the daughter of Walner out of All The Time has two wins in nine starts and $78,824 in earnings for breeders-owners Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld. American Beauty won the first leg of the KYSS on Aug. 1 in a career-best 1:54.2, and then finished fifth and second in her two other Lexington starts. American Beauty comes into the KYSS final off a fourth-place finish behind Venerable in the Peaceful Way.

“American Beauty is a nice filly and trots beautifully,” said Takter. “But she hasn’t been in the right spot where she really knows what everything is about yet. She’s a little bit going through the motions, but she has the ability and the gait to be a really, really nice filly. She’s just lacking a little bit of the racehorse understanding part of it still. But it took her mom quite a bit of time to figure it out too. If she can race off of cover I think she can pick up a nice check in the final.”

Another of Takter’s KYSS finalists on Sunday is the 3-year-old colt trotter Really Fast, who starts from post four with driver Dunn in race three. A five-time winner this year with a mark of 1:51.2 at The Meadowlands, Really Fast finished first and second in his first two KYSS preliminaries before a fifth-place outing in the last round.

“I don’t know what happened last time he raced, he just got a little off behind and Dex (Dunn) couldn’t really let him go finishing and feeling safe,” said Takter. “We worked on him a little bit and he should be better this week. I trained him (Thursday) and was really happy with him.”

Included among Really Fast’s six rivals for the winner’s share of the $250,000 purse is the defending KYSS champ Venerate, who parlayed that win last year into his Mohawk Million score. Venerate, who has a fourth, first and second in his respective three KYSS starts this year, will line up in post seven for driver Andy Miller.

In addition to her six KYSS Championship Series finalists, Takter will also send out six KYSS Commonwealth Series finalists that will be contested over the two days. One of those Commonwealth starters is the 3-year-old filly trotter Altar, who will line up in post six for driver Dunn.

A daughter of Muscle Hill, Altar is a three-time winner this year from seven starts, with her wins all romps in the KYSS preliminaries. She won her KYSS opener by 10 lengths in 1:51.2 — at the time the fastest mile by a sophomore filly trotter this year — and then the second round by 10-3/4 lengths in 1:51.4. After a second-place finish in leg three, Altar cruised to a five-length score in 1:50.4 to lower her own national season’s mark.

KYSS conditions provide that a horse can only change series after the first leg, and Takter wishes she had made that decision at the time so that the trotter could have raced for $250,000 on Sunday instead of $50,000 on Monday.

“She crushes in the Commonwealth and obviously, she would have been one I would have liked to have moved up,” said Takter. “I wish we had the option (at any time). I understand you don’t want horses to move down that have been racing the Sires Stakes (Championship Series) and then moving down the last leg and getting points. They need to change it to where you can always move up.”