2YO filly My Miss Caroline now 10 for 11

Even though she wasn’t hearing much from her rivals as she quickly opened up a four-length lead, My Miss Caroline continued to put space between herself and her opponents as she cruised under the wire with her 10th win in 11 career starts on  Wednesday night at Balmoral Park in the $45,850 Violet Stakes.

 

A winner in 10 of 11 starts now with earnings of $155,425, My Miss Caroline has never lost in ICF competition for La Bella Vita Stable, Robert Taylor and Kevin Dixon. This time the Psychic Spirit filly won by eight lengths in 1:59.

 

After yet another easy victory, trainer Robert Taylor continued to marvel over his prize trotting filly as he assessed her accomplishments.

 

“To be honest with you, she hasn’t changed that much from her first career start till now,” said her humble yet highly successful conditioner. “She has grown some and put on a little weight. If there’s one thing I’d really have to try and find different in her it’s that she’s learned to relax during a race a little more. From day one she’s always had a great attitude and was always very willing to do her work. We’ll give her one more start in the Hanover here at Balmoral and then shut her down and hopefully she’ll come back around next May just as good or hopefully even better than she was this year.”

 

Sent off at odds of 1-9, My Miss Caroline returned $2.10, $2.10 & $2.10 while running her career bankroll up to $155,425.

 

The $44,300 Cardinal for 2-year-old colt trotters looked to be a two-horse battle between division leaders Detailer and Powerful Charger, but when the smoke cleared it was 14-1 outside Hammer Head who wound up coming out on top with an impressive 5 ¼ length triumph in a lifetime best of 1:58.

 

Given a very confident steer by driver Marcus Miller, who had five wins on the night, the gelded son of Armbro American-She’s Pumped came away fourth in the early going as Powerful Charger (Todd Warren) and Detailer (Dave Magee) battled through an opening quarter in :28.3.

 

“My horse has a ton of gate speed but I knew those others would be out and winging for early position so I decided to try and back him off a bit tonight,” explained Miller.

 

“I knew it was all the “big ones” up in front of us but they weren’t going very much at that point so I figured it was worth taking a shot to get to the front,” said Miller. “I figured what the heck, I’ll let them try and catch me tonight and my horse was very manageable once he made the lead.”

 

Powerful Charger pulled right alongside of Hammer Head at the top of the lane and Miller thought he might be in trouble, but only for a second.

 

“I know how tough the other horse is but once he got right alongside of us my horse really seemed to pick it up,” said a beaming Miller. “I just chirped at him a few times and off he went.”