Perfect 10 for Val’s Girl in MSS Finals

It’s not often you get a perfect ten in anything in life, let alone harness racing.

Thursday night (Oct. 13) Rosecroft Raceway hosted four $75,000 finals of the Maryland Sire Stakes for two-year-old colt and filly trotters and pacers, and the star of the evening program was the pacing filly Val’s Girl (Rusty’s For Real), who made it a perfect 10-10 in her freshmen season, as she held off her chief rival Spy’s Last Game in a track and stakes record clocking of 1:53.1.

Roger Plante drove the winner for trainer and co-owner Steve LeBlanc, William Lutz Jr., and Count De Money Stable. Her seasonal earnings now sit at $111,703. She also matched the perfect freshmen season of her dam (mother) Miss Valerie.

“She was really on cruise control tonight. Once she made the front, she was really good.” Plante said. “She was great on the half but got even better on the big track.”

Driver Jonathan Roberts won a pair of Maryland Sires Stakes Finals as Tenouutaten (Cam’s Rocket), bred, owned and trained by Kerry Welty, stole the show in the $75,000 final for colt trotters as he picked up the first win of his career at the best of times. He missed the Stakes series at the Ocean after a good third in his debut in a Maryland Standardbred Race Fund Race.

A sickness cost him a month of racing, but he rebounded with two second place finishes in the preliminary legs. The favorite Sultan Of Sultans, made a break at the start and Roberts inherited the lead from the rail with Tenouutaten and was never headed in 2:01.1.

“I didn’t foresee those other horses making a break. It allowed me to get the fractions I wanted. He was good in both eliminations, but he was even better tonight,’’ Roberts said.

Roberts also won the $75,000 final for two-year-old filly trotters with Graham Grace Stables Call Me Goo (Googoo Gaagaa). She and her rival Goolishness have now each won a $75,000 final this year as Roberts followed in the pocket and won in 1:56.4. Jason Skinner conditions the filly who is the Maryland Sires Stakes record holder, winning an elimination in 1:56.3 two starts back.

Jared Moyer and Babes All In (Rusty’s All In) wrapped up the Sires Stakes Finals action with a 7-1 upset going to the lead and winning in 1:52.1. That mile tied the track and stakes standard for owner-breeder Ronald Short. The 1-9 favorite Smooth Rocket was a handful to steer for Russell Foster. Sitting third for a half-mile, Foster finally got his horse to mount a challenge down the backside, but that’s when the winner did his best work.

“He was awesome. When Russell’s horse (Smooth Rocket) came to us, my horse just dug in,’’ Moyer said.

Roberts won the $17,500 Maryland Exclusive Handicap with Can’t Beach That in 1:50.3 for trainer Mike Hall who had three wins on the night. Roberts won five on the night, while Russell Foster won three times.

For complete race results, click here.

by Pete Medhurst, for Rosecroft Raceway