Lonesome Day aims for BC

Trainer Ross Croghan said Thursday afternoon that he is pointing 2-year-old pacing filly Lonesome Day to the upcoming Breeders Crown and that is why he decided to not enter the full sister to 2001 Crown champion filly Cam Swifty in Saturday's Matron final at Dover Downs after she had won her elimination last weekend.



Lonesome Day has six wins in eight starts this year, including the $330,000 Sweetheart Pace last August at the Meadowlands and Bluegrass and International Stallion Stakes divisions at The Mile during the recent two-week Grand Circuit action. Her win in the Matron elim Nov 5 was her first appearance in a month after capturing the International Stallion Stakes in a career-best 1:52.4.



"I really didn't like the fact that there was four weeks in a row this late in the year," Croghan, noting the Matron elims and final Nov. 5 and 12, respectively, and then the Breeders Crown elims and final Nov. 19 and 26, respectively, at the Meadowlands, told harnessracing.com. "We thought we would just go to the (Matron) eliminations and see how we felt about it. She was excellent off 30 days. She always seems a little bit better when she was fresh. The decision was that if we race the final then we have to race the Breeders Crowns eliminations and final, and that would make it four weeks in a row.



"If we raced in the Matron final basically I didn't want to go the Breeders Crown. She was the Sweetheart winner; she was cranked up early and it is amazing she is still around now. (Co-owner Eric Cherry) made the decision that he preferred for her to be as good as she can be for Breeders Crown night so we decided to miss the final so she didn't have to go four weeks in a row."



A daughter of Cambest out of the mare Swifty But Nifty, Lonesome Day was a $40,000 yearling purchase, going through the sale ring as Showboat Hall. Croghan said he made a request of Cherry to make the name change to Lonesome Day in tribute to a song on the Bruce Springsteen album "The Rising," which was recorded immediately after 9/11.



"That is my favorite Springsteen song," said Croghan of the song Lonesome Day. "I requested it. I asked (Cherry) if I could name one, and he said 'sure.' And I thought she was the best one we had."

« Back