Her Culese sweeps fillies

Her Culese, with 23-year-old southern Illinois native Tim Tetrick driving, pulled a upset, winning the $100,000 Filly World Trotting Derby in straight heats of 1:53.3 and 1:54.4 Friday afternoon at the DuQuoin State Fair. Flawless Bluestone and David Miller finished second in both heats. The Illinois-bred filly Silhouette Star finished 3-4 with Eric Ledford at the lines while Reinvent and Ron Marsh were 4-3 in the final standings.



Her Culese went off at 28-1 in the first heat and Tetrick, who sat behind the filly for the first time when he left the paddock for the post parade, elected to race her off the pace. Hambletonian Oaks winner Jalopy and Jeff Gregory grabbed the lead shortly after the :28.3 opening quarter and kept the lead past the :57.1 half and 1:26.3 three-quarters. Jalopy appeared on her way to victory when she went off stride in mid stretch. Flawless Bluestone inherited the lead, but she couldn't hold off the strong finish by Her Culese who won by a nose.



In the second heat Flawless Bluestone and Miller cut pedestrian fractions of :29 and 1:00. That prompted Tetrick to come first-over with Her Culese and the Muscles Yankee filly responded, taking the lead after a 1:29.3 third quarter and trotting strong to the wire for a three-quarter length victory.



Owned by David McDuffee, Iriving Liverman and John Fielding, Her Culese came to DuQuoin off a victory in a division of the filly Zweig Memorial at Syracuse and now has five victories in 12 starts this year for trainer Brett Pelling.



In the $30,000 Hayes Memorial 2-year-old filly pace, Ultimate Bet and Andy Miller came from off the pace at the top of the lane and drew off to 1:53.2 victory. American Excel and David Miller were second with Art Impression and Jeff Gregory third.



The winner is a daughter of Bettor's Delight who was making just her second start for trainer Ervin Miller and owner Vandalay Racing.

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