Can granny get the win?

Granny Gui is one of five daughters of Dream Vacation hoping to pull off the upset in the $175,000 New Jersey Sire Stakes final for 3-year-old filly trotters on Thursday night at the Meadowlands. 

Among the competition she will face are Possess The Magic, who led all 2-year-old trotters in earnings last year, and Gerri’s Joy, winner of the 2006 Merrie Annabelle.  Trained by Sam Fava, Granny Gui will start from post seven and is rated at 10-1 on the morning line in Thursday night’s seventh race. She captured the first two rounds of the NJSS, both at odds of 9-1, and was a strong third after starting from post 10 in last week’s leg of the series. Granny Gui enters the NJSS final with a record of three wins in 13 career starts.

"Donald Dancer had her early on,” Fava said. “Bob Stevenson trained her down, too.  She was fifth in a Matron elimination last year (at Dover Downs) and trotted in 1:57. She got beat by a track record (Michelle’s Angel in 1:56.2). She qualified well coming back and I didn't really change much on her. I got her after her Harrington lines (on May 16). She had a problem staying flat and just grew out of it."

Granny Gui was a $15,000 yearling purchase at the New Jersey Classic Sale (sold as Bloodstock’s Dream) by Sophia Stables Inc. of Mt. Kisco, N.Y., the nom de course of Ernie Henick. Fava and Henick have a longstanding friendship.

"It is friendship before ownership with Ernie,” he said. “He’s a wonderful guy, dedicated to this business. He loves it. He's one of the reasons I'm back. From 1996-2004, I took a kind of hiatus. I was working in our family construction business, but I couldn't stay away. It's in your blood. You know how it is in this business."

Fava has been training horses since the early 1970s, most notably 1982 Monticello OTB Classic winner Bo Scots Blue Chip, who not only won that race by nine lengths but did so over Cam Fella. Fava is the only trainer to have defeated the two-time Horse Of The Year on a half-mile track. He also trained Pinocchio, Broadway Express, Bad Self, Pomp Again and Motoring Blue Chip. (Meadowlands)

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