The buzz around the $144,000
Continentalvictory was centered around two fillies, Mission Brief and Wild
Honey, hoping to earn divisional honors with a compelling performance. Mission Brief seized that opportunity and
performed like a champion. Sent off as
the prohibitive 1/9 choice, Mission Brief was hustled to the lead early in the
mile and it was a lead she would never relinquish.
Sprinting past a quarter in 27.4,
Mission Brief kicked away from Wild Honey down the backstretch and Wild Honey
felt whip taps from her driver John Campbell just to try to keep up. In the meantime, Mission Brief was trotting
smoothly on the lead past the half-mile in 56 seconds and she began to open up
on the field on the far turn, reaching three-quarters in 1:24.1 while leading
the field by four lengths. From there,
Mission Brief had the Meadowlands homestretch all to herself and she trotted a
27.2 final quarter under no urging to win the Continentalvictory in 1:51.3 in
the final start of her season, a win that put Mission Brief past $1 Million
this season.
“She’s the best trotter in training,”
exclaimed Yannick Gingras in a post-race interview. “No disrespect to any of
the older trotters, but I wish she was in that race tonight. I don’t think any of them want any part of
her.”
Ron Burke was beaming with pride in
the winner’s circle as well. “She’s the
best horse I’ve ever had,” said Burke.
“Next year is going to be tough, she is going to face all the good ones
and I am not going to duck anyone. We
are going to find out if she is as good as we all think she is.”
With the win, Mission Brief concludes
her season with 10 wins from 14 starts and earnings of $1,001,317. For her career, the star filly has 19 wins
from 27 races and earnings of nearly $1.6 Million. She is owned by Burke Racing Stable, Our
Horse Cents Stables, Jerry and Theresa Silva and Weaver Bruscemi. Wild Honey completed the exacta with Kelsey’s
Keepsake and Lady Winona completing the field.
