With 17 lasses in to go, the event offers two six-horse fields--purses $54,833 each—and a five-horse event at $1,000 less.
Defending statebred champion Winndevie makes her seasonal debut in the final event, leaving from post position No. 5 in the seventh race. Trond Smedshammer trains and drives the daughter of Credit Winner for Purple Haze Stables.
As a frosh, Winndevie offered up six wins and a second in seven starts ($227,878), wrapped by a 1:58 mark taken here in September’s $225,000 final of the sire stakes.
Quincy Blue Chip (Jim Morrill, Jr., post 3) socked away $181,962 at two, doing so with four wins, three seconds and a third in eight tries.
After ending 2018 with a second-place finish in the finale of the statebreds, the Blue Chip Bloodstock homebred daughter of Chapter Seven began this season with a (Pocono) win and a second in two tries.
Amal Hall (Andy Miller, post 6), herself a six-figure lass ($124,102) last season, also used Westchester for her life-best (1:58.4) effort. Julie Miller trains this season-debuting Credit Winner miss for her husband the chauffeur, GTY Stable and Dumain Haven Farm.
Tuesday night’s first-event quintet (second race) finds Hanna Dreamgirl (Brian Sears, post 3) and Stella Jane (Jason Bartlett, post 4) alongside one another, each coming off solid first seasons.
The former, a Chapter Seven miss owned by Ken Jacobs and trained by George Ducharme, won twice from 15 starts in 2018 ($115,204).
The latter, a Crawford Farms homebred daughter of Crazed trained by John Butenschoen, was 3-for-14 a season ago, the highlight a win in the $236,060 final of the Kindergarten at the Meadowlands (life-best 1:54.4). She tries it this season sans the trotting hopples.
The evening’s second grouping (third race) is led by Conway Kellyanne (Charlie Norris, post 3), having earned $127,996 in her freshman (freshwoman?) season. After her statebred obligations, the Conway Hall miss finished second in a pair of Red Mile open stakes tries.