American National Stake Elimination Results

A total of 21 fillies were entered in the American National Stake elimination rounds, making it necessary to schedule a trio of elimination rounds to determine exactly which horses should be raced in the preliminaries. The action was fast-paced and exciting and show-cased some amazing racing potential.

Despite the fact that it was a battle of freshman trotters, the competition was fierce. Each of the top three finishers would not only be receiving award money of $13, 900, but they would join one randomly selected fourth place finisher in the big race next Tuesday for a much bigger purse of $97 000. Everyone wanted to make sure that their horses would be bringing home the money. In the first elimination round, it was Musical Mystery from Brittany Farms who managed to take home top honors. She did not win outright, however, but rather came second behind race winner B Nikki. Unfortunately for the owners of B Nikki, she was later disqualified, leaving Musical Mystery the winner with a race time of 1:59.2. Due to B Nikki interfering with Jeansandatshirt, she was moved down from first place to a miserable fifth. Possess Me was bumped up to second, Talkaboutjoy was given third and Jeansandatshirt was placed fourth.

The second elimination round was much less dramatic. Starcelona from Perretti Racing Stables and Black Horse Racing absolutely blew away the competition, winning in 1:58. She was followed by Evening Prayer in second and One Tough Girl in third. Eagle Bette placed fourth. Starcelona has already enjoyed a very successful career and has earned $33 210 in the three lifetime starts that she has made. The final elimination round set the stage for plenty of excitement as Deedees Destiny shot past competitors at the last moment in a beautiful neck victory that she ran in an incredible 1:57. During the race she was held back in mid-pack and slowly moved to the outside from where she was able to launch her attack on competitors as the horses turned for home. She quickly overtook all her rivals and crossed the finish line in first place in her first career victory. She was followed by Wedding Dress in second, Tropical Caprice in third and Fox Valley Strata in fourth.