Saturday night fever?

Cabana Fever effectively turned the temperature up on the 2-year-old pacing filly division last weekend at Mohawk when she put in a 1:51.4 track record performance and snapped Luck Of Michelle's seven-race unbeaten streak during the eliminations for the She's A Great Lady Stakes.

Set to leave from post three in Saturday's $754,500(C) final, the daughter of first-crop sire Real Desire will start to the outside of her fellow elim winners Lady Mattgalane (PP1, Ron Pierce) and Whitesand Gem (PP2, Mark MacDonald), who also earned the right to select their post positions.

"I left her post selection to Luc (driver Ouellette)," said trainer Joe Seekman, who conditions the speedy bay filly for owners L And L Devisser LLC of Holland, Mich., Sawgrass Farms LLC of Lockport, Ill. and the Helping Hands Stable of Woodbury, Ind. "We were thinking about the rail, but she wears a screen because she takes a good look around and sees a lot of things. So, I think the three hole will work quite well for her."

Heading into her She's A Great Lady elim, Cabana Fever, the first foal out of the Jennas Beach Boy mare Beachy Lady, had been a perfect two-for-two in her career. She had notched a hard-charging, off-the-pace victory clocked in 1:55.3 on July 9 at Balmoral Park during a $32,000 Hanover stake, and followed that up more than five weeks later (Aug. 19) at Indiana Downs, again coming from off the pace to catch her rivals before hitting the wire in 1:54.2 during a $217,850 Kentuckiana Stallion Management stake.

In both instances, Cabana Fever came home with final quarter-mile clockings of under 27 seconds (:26.3 and :26.1, respectively).

"Even while training, the one thing that she showed was a strong late kick," Seekman said. "Early on, we didn't know that she was the type of filly that she is because we don't train our young overly hard until we have to. We didn't know that she had some really special talent until we qualified her."

With hindsight being 20-20, Cabana Fever has been well worth her $25,000 price that she went for at the 2005 Harrisburg Yearling Sale. And now, after her elimination victory, she is a perfect three-for-three, has banked $142,425 and is approaching yet another large payday if things go her way on Saturday. (WEG)

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