By Ray Cotolo, for The Red Mile
LEXINGTON, KY—The
filly equivalent of the Kentucky Futurity, the $224,000 Kentucky Filly
Futurity, was contested in its 49th renewal on Sunday, October 5 at
The Red Mile. With only seven sophomore filly trotters entering, the race went
straight to final.
Shake It Cerry
tangoed with six other fillies as the 1/5 favorite, and did not break a sweat,
trotting to a 1:52.2 victory over Vanity Matters and Scream And Shout.
Scream And Shout
dueled with Highest Peak for control around the first turn, with Scream And
Shout emerging in front to the quarter. Setting a fraction of :27.4, Ron Pierce
sent Shake It Cerry after the lead, and she commandeered the field before the
half.
Trotting past the
half in :56.2 (:28.3), she was uncontested on the lead. Vanity Matters was her
closest rival past three-quarters, timed in 1:25.1 (:28.3), but soon grew a
distance away from Shake It Cerry heading into the stretch. Under a hand drive,
Shake It Cerry strode to a 4 ½-length victory in 1:52.2 (:27.1).
The daughter of
Donato Hanover-Solveig-Yankee Glide has now earned $1,562,205 in her career,
with $734,436 credited to this season. She’s owned by Solveig’s Racing
Partners, trained by Jimmy Takter, and driven by Ron Pierce. She returned $2.40
to win.
“The race worked
out perfect,” trainer Jimmy Takter said. “It’s a heck of a mile, going [1]:52.2
with a trotting filly. This weather is kind of windy, and it’s tough. Ron
[Pierce] says that she’s so good right now that he had seconds left in her.”
“She never really did a bad race,” Takter
also said, in regards to Shake It Cerry currently racing at top form. “In the
Hambletonian [Oaks], she maybe got a little overdriven, but the rest of her
races, in all of her life, have been very good. She’s been an absolutely
wonderful horse since she started racing.”
