Fox Valley Lover wins ISOBA at Balmoral Park

Freshman trotting fillies grabbed the headlines on a cold and rainy Tuesday at Balmoral Park as a field of eight diagonally gaited state-breds squared off in a $15,000 ISOBA Super Sale Stake, with Fox Valley Lover emerging the winner.

The tough conditions did not slow down Paula Smith and James Runyan’s Fox Valley Lover as the good looking daughter of Vaporize-Love You More trotted to a three-quarter length victory in 2:01.1 over a "sloppy" track.  

Reserved early on after leaving from the outside post, driver Dale Hiteman was content to keep his filly well off the brisk early fractions of :29.4, :59.1 and 1:29 that were being set by Overt (Josh Sutton). Moving up steadily throughout the race Fox Valley Lover was seventh at the quarter, fifth at the half, and fourth at the three-quarter mile mark.

Quickly cutting into the nine-length lead that Overt enjoyed as the field turned for home, Fox Valley Lover swallowed up the leader with just over a sixteenth of a mile to trot. The Joel Smith-trained miss then held off a late challenge from Talkaboutjoy (Sam Widger), who enjoyed a nice ground-saving trip to be the bridesmaid and division leader Miss Vickie (Brandon Simpson), who found herself with too much ground to make up while rallying to finish third.  

The win gives Fox Valley Lover a record of 5-3-2 in 14 starts this season with earnings of $86,733. (Balmoral Park)

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