MANALAPAN,
NJ – May 23, 2014 – The truth is the weather was frightful but heavy showers
did not deter 8/5 favorite Speak The Truth, who won the first of three
second-round divisions of the New Jersey Sire Stakes for three-year-old
trotters on Friday night, May 23, 2014 at the Meadowlands.
Tim
Tetrick, who piloted Speak The Truth, also won the third division, the 11th
race, with 1-9 favorite Odds On Amethyst in a New Jersey Sire Stakes
record for three-year-old trotting geldings of 1:53.4.
A
quartet of $100,000 New Jersey Sire Stakes Finals for three-year-old trotters
and pacers, fillies and colts, will be contested on May 31.
Speak
The Truth, a son of Muscle Hill-Tady’s Comer, won his 2014 debut with a mile in
1:54.3 on a sloppy track, finishing two and three-quarter lengths ahead of
Dexter Cup winner Sumatra [Muscles Yankee] with Skates N Plates [Revenue] in
third by three and a quarter lengths.
The
third-race co-feature for colts and geldings carried a purse of $21,500.
The
team behind trotting stars Market Share and Chapter Seven – driver Tetrick,
trainer Linda Toscano and owner Richard Gutnick – were back in the winner’s
circle with Speak The Truth [$5.20], who had two wins and one second in his
five starts at two.
Speak
The Truth sat fifth most of the race, was sent after the lead on the turn for
home and tipped out four-wide in the stretch.
A
$65,000 Harrisburg Yearling Sale purchase, Speak The Truth has earned
$24,750. The half-brother to millionaire Hez Striking is eligible to the
Hambletonian.
Tetrick
picked up his third driving tally of the night with Odds On Amethyst [Muscle
Hill- Mystical Sunshine] in the $21,000 second colts and geldings
division.
Odds
On Amethyst [$2.20] took the lead on the first turn and held on through
fractions of 28, 56.2 and 1:25.2, where he opened up distance between himself
and the pocket-sitting Resolve [Muscle Hill], who closed ground near the wire
to narrow the margin to three-quarters of a length. King City [Muscle
Hill] was third.
Odds
On Amethyst, trained by Chris Ryder, crossed the wire in 1:53.4, eclipsing the
New Jersey Sire Stakes three-year-old trotting gelding record of 1:54.1 set by
Green Day in 2007.
It
was Odds On Amethyst’s second win in three starts this year and improved his
record to four wins and two seconds in 13 career starts, banking $108,248 for
Diamond Creek Racing of Wellsville, PA.
In
the $40,000 division for fillies, carded as the fifth race, winner Cee Bee Yes
[Muscles Yankee – Embeecee] posted a lifetime mark of 1:54.1 with driver Marcus
Miller at the lines.
The
Julie Miller trainee, winner of the Lady Suffolk on May 2 at Freehold, chased
8/5 favorite Heaven’s Door [Muscle Hill] into the stretch, getting up for a two
and a half length victory over My Inspiration [Chocolatier], who nipped
Heaven’s Door for second place.
Heaven’s
Door, driven by Ake Svanstedt, was third across the wire but was placed last by
the judges for racing inside three pylons in the stretch, moving Scream And
Shout [Muscles Yankee] into third place.
Cee
Bee Yes, a $45,000 Harrisburg Yearling Sale purchase, won the New Jersey Sire
Stakes Final at two. She now has six wins, three seconds and two thirds
from 14 career starts and has banked $237,057 for the ownership of Jason Allen
of Vincentown, NJ and Douglas Allen of Southampton, NJ.
--Carol
Hodes for SBOANJ
