Four world champions meet in Thursday’s $121,500 Miss Versatility Series championship for older female trotters at the Delaware County Fair in central Ohio.
The group is led by Bee A Magician, who was the 2013 Horse of the Year in both the U.S. and Canada, and Classic Martine, who has won this year’s Armbro Flight Stakes and two preliminary divisions of the Miss Versatility Series. The two horses share the world record of 1:51.1 for the fastest winning time by a four-year-old trotting mare on a mile racetrack.
Classic Martine also shares the world record of 1:51.2 for the fastest victory by a female trotter of any age on a five-eighths-mile racetrack. She shares the mark with her stablemate, and Miss Versatility contender, Frau Blucher.
And then there is Maven. Last year, she won the Miss Versatility Series championship with a 1:51.4 triumph at Delaware. The time established the world record for fastest race mile ever by any trotter, male or female, on a half-mile oval. Only Cash Hall’s time-trial 1:51.1 time, recorded at Delaware in 2006, is faster than Maven’s race time.
A day before Maven made history, Frau Blucher set the world record of 1:53.1 for the fastest win by any three-year-old trotter on a half-mile track at Delaware.
“It’s a very deep group, for sure,” said Chris Oakes, who trains Classic Martine and Frau Blucher. “I think we’ve got a very good chance. Both horses are doing well right now and drew well, which is important there. (But) I think probably the horse to beat is Bee A Magician.”
Classic Martine drew Post 1 and is the 2-1 morning line favourite with driver Tim Tetrick. She has won eight of 12 races and $246,732 this year. Last season, she shared the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championship for three-year-old female trotters with Frau Blucher – finishing in a dead heat for win with her stablemate in the final – and was second to Bee A Magician in the Hambletonian Oaks.
The mare is owned by Hauser Brothers Racing, Susan Oakes, Conrad Zurich and Ed Gold.
“She had time off and she matured good and has come back a better horse than last year,” Oakes said. “She’s a little bigger, a little stronger, and the mental toughness is definitely there this year.”
Frau Blucher, who finished second to Bee A Magician in last year’s Breeders Crown, will start from Post 4 with driver Ron Pierce and is 10-1. She has won one of seven races this year, but is approaching $1 million in lifetime earnings for owners Hauser Brothers Racing, Susan Oakes and Matt Tudisco.
Bee A Magician, trained by Nifty Norman, was unbeaten in 17 races last season and has won three of 10 starts this year. She finished second to male rivals in the Hambletonian Maturity and fourth against the sport’s top open trotters in the Crawford Farms Trot. In fact, her most recent three starts were against the boys, with her winning an open at Yonkers and a conditioned handicap at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
She won a division of the Miss Versatility by a neck over Charmed Life in her world-record 1:51.1 performance. Three weeks later, she lost by a neck to Classic Martine in the Ima Lula final in the same time.
Bee A Magician is owned by Mel Hartman, Herb Liverman and David McDuffee. She has won 30 of 40 career races and $2.52 million. She starts the Miss Versatility from Post 6 with driver Brian Sears and is 5-2.
Maven, who received the 2013 Dan Patch Award for best older female trotter, has won two of eight races this year. She opened her campaign with a win in the Miami Valley Distaff and then went to Sweden for the Elitlopp Invitational, where she finished third in her elimination and sixth in the final.