Dead heat finish in $100,000 Courageous Lady

The $100,000 Courageous Lady for three-year-old pacing mares lived up to its billing as the two favorites, Zanatta (Stay Hungry) and Ucandoit Blue Chip (Keystone Velocity) fought a war that neither would lose in Grand Circuit harness racing action at Northfield Park on Saturday night (October 14th).

The two fillies, who came in off a 1-2 finish in the Jugette, would hit the wire together in 1:52.4 for a deadheat finish in a race neither deserved to lose after waging a protracted nose-to-nose battle for the final three-eighths of a mile.

The race started as expected with a keyed-up Zanatta blasting to the front for driver Joe Bongiorno. Cruise Alert (Jordan Stratton) used her rail advantage to drive into the pocket and Scott Zeron got Ucandoit Bluechip away cleanly in third from her second tier post.

Zanatta led by three lengths through a 27.4 quarter and didn’t back the pace down much through a 55.4 half. At that point, Zeron sent Ucandoit Bluechip first up to challenge. The two rivals hooked up and were nose to nose at the three quarters in 1:23.2. That battle would continue with neither filly giving an inch, eventually hitting the wire simultaneously. Cruise Alert stayed for third.

UCANDOIT BLUECHIP / ZANATTA REPLAY

Bongiorno indicated that Zanatta was keyed up to leave and that made it harder to find a breather. “I was really happy with my filly,” he began. “She’s just gotten a little stirred up from leaving with her a couple of times in a row now, at the Jugette and now coming here so I wasn’t able to back the half down quite as much as I wanted to. You know what? It worked out and congratulations to our connections and the connections that we dead-heated with.”

Hall of Fame trainer Linda Toscano was beaming after harnessing Ucandoit Bluechip to a win in her final career start.

“We kinda knew we were going to be first up,” she said. “She’s so handy Zanatta. We kinda beat her in the third quarter last time, Joey went in 27 and we got the job done in the Jugette. But we knew we were going to be first up this week and we were going to be at the disadvantage. I’m so tickled with how she raced. She dug right to the wire.”

Zanatta took her second win in 2023 in her 14th start and her share of the purse raised her lifetime earnings to more than $588,000 for owner One Legend Stable of Jupiter Florida. She is trained by Jenn Bongiorno.

Ucandoit Bluechip, who has a date with stallion Captaintreacherous, took her seventh win from 15 starts this year and she retires with just under $597,000 in earnings for owner Bill Elliot of Woodstock, Ontario.

Zanatta and Ucandoitbluechip returned $2.20 and $2.80 to win, respectively.

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

by Garnet Barnsdale, for Harnesslink