by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Freehold, NJ — Variety is said to be the spice of life. It also is the key to keeping Diana Hall on track.

Diana Hall, a 3-year-old filly trotter, is among the 10 starters in Friday’s $300,000 Delvin Miller Memorial final at the Meadowlands Racetrack. She has one win in three races this season and is coming off a second-place finish to One Tough Lass in last week’s elimination races. The other elim was won by Snow White.

Francisco Del Cid will send out Diana Hall in the $300,000 Del Miller Memorial final on Friday.

“To keep a woman happy is very difficult,” trainer Francisco Del Cid said. “We manage to keep her happy and do what we want her to do. The key is not to keep them in the same thing every day; rotate it, actually. She’s a natural good filly. It’s just a matter to work on her mentally and not let her get stressed, not let her get sour. If she does the same thing every day, she gets cranky.”

Del Cid varies Diana Hall’s program with training, jogging, walking, and lunging in a sandpit.

“Speed and gait and desire — she’s got it all,” Del Cid said. “She’s pretty light on her feet.”

Diana Hall (Like A Prayer-Delphini) was purchased as a weanling by Mario Mazza.

“I just wanted her for a stablemate and I liked her conformation,” Mazza said. “I was looking for a weanling for my other three fillies back at the farm. I was lucky to get her. She stood straight. I thought, I’ve got to get that horse. She’s been a great horse ever since. She was the last (weanling) to come out, so I had no choice. So it was a good choice.”

In her Miller elim, Diana Hall raced first over and was beaten by 2-3/4 lengths by One Tough Lass, who followed her cover.

USTA/Ken Weingartner photos

Diana Hall has five lifetime wins and earnings of $69,308.

“I think she’s got a heck of a shot (in the final),” Mazza said. “If she gets the right trip, I think it will be a nice little duel there with Snow White.”

Del Cid, a former exercise rider for Thoroughbred trainer D. Wayne Lukas in California and New Jersey, began working in harness racing in the late 1980s.

“I switched to this and liked it,” the 5-foot-6, 130-pound native of Guatemala said.

He trained a small stable on his own for a number of years before joining the Trond Smedshammer Stable several years ago. He again moved out on his own last fall.

Del Cid’s best year came in 2001 when he won 20 races and $193,101 in purses. This year, he has one victory and $27,190 in earnings.

Smedshammer trained Diana Hall at the end of last season. She closed the campaign by winning an elimination race for the Matron Stakes at Dover Downs and finished third in the final. The two fillies to finish ahead of her in the Matron, Lindy’s Heiress and Celebrity Tribute, also advanced to Friday’s Delvin Miller final.

Diana Hall joined Del Cid’s stable in February.

“I was skeptical a little earlier because I knew we were behind everybody else; I wish I had her in November or December,” Del Cid said. “I wondered if I could catch up to everybody else. Luckily, she took right to training. I didn’t miss a single day with her.”

Del Cid has 10 horses in training, mainly for Mazza, at his central New Jersey-based stable.

“I can’t complain,” Del Cid said, adding with a laugh, “but I can handle four more.”