Unbeaten filly gets tested in PASS

WASHINGTON, PA, August 7, 2024 — Princess Jackie (Greenshoe-Frisky Magic) has launched her harness racing career in spectacular fashion — three straight wins, including a pair in Pennsylvania Sire Stakes; $86,398 in earnings; a mark of 1:55.3. On Thursday, she’ll try to extend that career unbeaten streak in the Delmonica Hanover, a $157,598 PA Sires Stake for freshman filly trotters at Hollywood Casino at The Meadows.

The card also features an $80,000 PA Stallion Series event for 2-year-old trotting fillies. First post is 12:45 PM.

Owner/trainer D.R. Ackerman acquired the filly at the Standardbred Horse sale for a more-than-reasonable $30,000. The mystery is why she didn’t bring more. Ackerman theorizes that Greenshoe had yet to become a fashionable sire.

“He didn’t have quite as good a first year at stud, although he’s turned out to be a good sire,” Ackerman says. “Buyers were off him a little. Also, she was the very last horse sold on Tuesday. That may have something to do with it.

“She’s really athletic, and she was pretty good from the beginning. Every time we asked her to go, she went.”

Princess Jackie, whose name honors Ackerman’s 2-year-old granddaughter Jackie, is eligible to many rich late-season stakes, including the Breeders Crown and the Matron. She leaves from post 2, race eight, with Tim Tetrick driving.

Another youngster to watch in the Delmonica Hanover is Blueberry (Father Patrick-Perfect Image in race 6, post 6, Brian Zendt), who chased Princess Jackie home in both of those sire stakes, finishing second and third. She also has to her credit a 1:57 victory in an Arden Downs Grand Circuit split.

Doug Snyder, who trains the homebred filly for Geraldine Poerio, was high on her even before she began training. That’s because he conditioned her ill-fated full brother, who died at 2 following a farm accident.

“I thought she was a top filly from Day 1,” Snyder says. “When you sit behind her every day, you feel it: her gait; her stride; just the way she moves.”

Although Blueberry has a limited stakes schedule this year, she’s eligible to nearly everything at 3.

Her name arose at a Poerio family dinner when blueberries were on the menu. Someone suggested Blueberry for the filly’s name, and the idea spread. We don’t know how far Blueberry can go, but come Thursday, she’ll be looking to land in a pot of jam.

by Evan Pattak, for the MSOA