Susies Magic looking to take flight

When 20-1 longshot Susies Magic accelerated past her high-profile rivals, Passionate Glide and Pure Ivory, to win the $569,250 Breeders Crown 3-Year-Old Filly Trot by a neck in 1:55.4 last year, she not only provided a profitable payoff for her supporters, but she gave rookie trainer Tony Osullivan the biggest win of his career.

As a 4 year old, however, she’s up against one of the toughest groups of older trotting mares in some time, and is gradually finding her way. On Saturday night, Susies Magic will battle it out in the $50,000(C) Armbro Flight elimination at Mohawk Racetrack.

"The original decision was to breed her and do an embryo transfer," says conditioner Tony O'Sullivan, who took on Susies Magic (Dream Vacation-Kash Echo) just before the 2006 Breeders Crown and has trained her ever since. "We wanted to continue racing her because she was just getting good at the end of her 4-year-old year, and she’s a big, strong mare so we figured she’d be good as a 4 year old."

The embryo transfer was foiled by timing issues. "Lee (DeVisser) and Lynn Jones, who own her 50-50, decided against it what with the Classic Series so early this year," O'Sullivan says. But Susies Magic has enjoyed some success in the ranks of the older mares, with two wins in six starts so far this year. However, a disappointing performance in last Saturday’s 1 3/8 mile Classic Oaks, where she failed to fire and finished 10th, leaves her connections hoping to redeem themselves in the upcoming Armbro Flight eliminations on June 23 at Mohawk.

"She won the second leg of the Classic at the Meadowlands on May 5, and then she had some time off, which was by design, though it didn’t really pay off the way we’d hoped!", says O'Sullivan. "She just wasn’t herself (last Saturday). She was quiet, and that’s not like her. Normally she gives 110 percent. She can be a handful to hook at the races; we have to do it on the fly, though she never kicks once she’s on the track. But last weekend she was a little quiet to hook to the bike, so I knew then she wasn’t going to race the best.

"I don’t think the distance had anything to do with it. I train a mile and a half anyway, so I’m not going to blame it on the distance. Everything checked out OK, and she’s been training good and feeling sharp, so hopefully she will have her game face back on this weekend!"

Susies Magic will be meeting many of her arch- rivals in the Armbro Flight elim: Peaceful Way, Mystical Sunshine and Pure Ivory, to name a few. "It’s a very tough division this year, there’s no doubt about that," says O'Sullivan. "Ordinarily there’s not all that much depth with the older trotting mares because the good ones so often get bred, but this year everyone had the same idea we did. All of the mares she’s up against are real good ones, but Susies Magic is a good one too, and she’ll get her turn." (WEG)

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