by Ellen Harvey, Harness Racing Communications

East Rutherford, NJ — Shake It Cerry and Ron Pierce made it back-to-back Breeders Crown victories as the duo won the $500,000 3-Year-Old Filly Trot edition on Friday night at the Meadowlands in a stakes record time of 1:52.2, two-fifths of a second better than the old mark set by Bee A Magician last year.

It was the 19th Breeders Crown for her trainer Jimmy Takter and 30th for driver Ron Pierce, and she was the first trotting filly to win back-to-back Crowns since Cameron Hall in 2001-2002. The daughter of Donato Hanover-Solveig is owned by Sloveig’s Racing Partners.

USTA/Mark Hall photo

Shake It Cerry made it back-to-back Breeders Crown victories as she won the Breeders Crown 3-year-old filly trot in 1:52.2, a stakes record.

Riveting Rosie (Paul MacDonell) got the race underway when they crossed over from post eight to grab the lead and hold it to the :27.1 quarter. Hambletonian Oaks winner Lifetime Pursuit trotted up to take the lead away and stayed right in that spot to the :55.3 half, fending off Cee Bee Yes, who was nudging her way toward the lead. Those two were fanning out at the 1:24.4 three-quarters, with Shake It Cerry looming large on the outside of those two.

They stayed together only a few strides as Shake It Cerry shook off the competition and left the field behind to win in 1:52.2 by 2-1/4 lengths. Cee Bee Yes (Scott Zeron) was second and Struck By Lindy (David Miller) closed strongly for third.

“They were mixing it up pretty good and we decided to relax a little bit,” said Ron Pierce of his decision to lay off the pace. “We found a live helmet to take us halfway around the last turn and Cerry did the rest. I just sat there. She did it pretty much on her own. She just cruised by them, I gave her very little encouragement.

“Jimmy has done a great job with her. I can’t say enough good about her. She’s definitely (the No. 1 filly I’ve driven for Takter) no question.”

“She stepped up quite a bit,” said Takter. “She had a bad day here in the Hambletonian (Oaks) but since then she’s been totally flawless. She’s one of the better horses I’ve been around.

“We plan to race her next year and we’ll see how it goes. Unfortunately the program for aged trotting mares is really no good, it’s tough to accumulate any revenue to make sense, but we’re going to give it a try. The filly is good and sound and we like racing. We’ll at least try maybe one more year.”