Record-tying filly captures $310,000 Jugette

Soft Shot (Heston Blue Chip), a supplemental entry, equaled the harness racing world’s record in her elimination and used a gate-to-wire effort in the final to win the $310,000 Jugette for three-year old filly pacers on Wednesday at the Delaware County Fair.

When the field of eight was sent on their way in the $260,000 final, they paced the first three-eighths of a mile in post-position order with Soft Shot (David Miller) and My Girl EJ (Dexter Dunn) pacing one and two.

As the field passed the grandstand the first time, the pocket sitting My Girl EJ experienced an equipment break, broke stride and was taken to the outside.

The break caused confusion in the back of the pack and gave Soft Shot a five-length lead at the half in :56.1.

A Few Choice Words (Jim Marohn, Jr.) tried to close the gap at the three-quarters in 1:23.4, but Miller and Soft Shot used a :27.1 final panel to score the 1:51 victory.

A Few Choice Words edged out Odds On Platinum (Todd McCarthy) for second, 2 ½ lengths behind the winner.

My Girl EJ was pulled up and did not finish.

SOFT SHOT FINAL REPLAY

When asked if this was the greatest day in his racing career, the winning owner, Paul O’Neil of Saratoga Springs, NY noted, “By far. Nothing even close, we were three-for-three today.”

Trainer Jessica Roegner and O’Neil won an Ohio Fair Racing Conference pace earlier on the card.

The connections of Soft Shot made the $15,000 entry payment just to make the filly eligible for the 54th edition of the pacing classic.

“We were here for the fun,” exclaimed Roegner. “She was just amazing.”

The first elimination was a gate to wire effort for Soft Shot in 1:49.3, a time that equaled the stake, track and world record set by Party Girl Hill in 2020.

A Few Choice Words came out of the pocket to challenge, but couldn’t get closer than the final margin of 1 ½ lengths.

The field’s other supplemental entry, Dandy’s Mercy (Scott Zeron) was third and Donegal Spirit (Todd McCarthy) was the final horse to advance to the final.

SOFT SHOT ELIMINATION REPLAY

The only bad news for Soft Shot’s connections today was that their piece of the world record lasted only about 35 minutes.

In the second $25,000 elimination, My Girl EJ (Sweet Lou) lowered the mark to 1:49.1.

The heavily favored homebred used her rail position and towed her stablemate Lou Lou (Yannick Gingras) through the first three-quarters of the mile.

Odds On Platinum (Todd McCarthy) came off the rail in third as the field headed down the backstretch the final time and finished second. Lou Lou was third and Hunting Hula (Andrew McCarthy) was fourth.

My Girl EJ is trained by Ron Burke, who co-owns with Burke Racing Stable, Weaver Bruscemi and Elizabeth Novak.

MY GIRL EJ REPLAY

With the Jugette win, Miller moves into a second-place tie with three driving titles.

Soft Shot has now won eleven of 14 starts this season and is 13-for-20 lifetime. With her $142,500 payday, her career earnings jump to $245,078.

When asked what was next for her and the filly, a jubilant Roegner noted, “to just get through the night.”

For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.

by Jay Wolf, for the Little Brown Jug