Washington, PA---Weeper, Pennsylvania’s champion 3-year-old filly pacer, performed like a champion Monday at The Meadows when she rolled to a stake record 1:51 in a division of a $90,000 Keystone Classic. Katie Said and Do Your Job took the event’s other divisions, each in 1:51.4 — the stake record until Weeper smashed it.
Weeper was let go at 11-1 in the PA Sires Stake final, but the public displayed no ambivalence about her chances Monday, hammering her down to 1-5. The daughter of Allamerican Native-Pleasant Yet Bad, who extended her career bankroll to $392,888, charged to the front for Dave Palone and defeated Stucklikeglue by 1-1/4 lengths geared down. Fancy Desire was third.
Because Weeper is still relatively fresh — only 11 starts this year — winning trainer Kelly O’Donnell said her owner, Joe Thomson’s Bay Pond Racing Stable, may consider supplementing her to this weekend’s Glen Garnsey at The Red Mile.
“She’s only raced twice in the last 13 weeks,” O’Donnell said. “We hit a couple of bumps in the road, and we had to give her a little time. She’s not a horse you can race every week, but she doesn’t take a whole lot of work either. We’ll have to see how she comes out of this.”
Although Katie Said has won nine of 16 outings this year, she hadn’t been in front at the quarter in any of her last six races. She extended that streak Monday, moving to the lead past the quarter for Marcus Miller and downing Lasting Appeal by 2-1/2 lengths. Someislandsomwhere earned show.
“Earlier in the year, she had breaking problems,” Marcus Miller said. “Everybody knew it, and she wasn’t a pretty breaker, so they were often trying to leave around her. So it just worked out she learned how to race from behind. She absolutely will run down good mares.”
Julie Miller trains the daughter of Well Said-Katies Lucky Lady, who now has banked $192,926, for Andy Miller Stable and Black Horse Racing.
Do Your Job hadn’t raced since Aug. 29, but Brian Zendt gave her a ground-saving trip, and she found the Lightning Lane in time to upset 3-5 favorite Also Encouraging by a nose. Early leader Cinamony completed the ticket. Tom Fanning conditions the daughter of Western Terror-Tootsie J for Fly By Night Stables and David Van Wart.
“I was a little worried when I saw she’d been off for awhile,” said Zendt, who drove three winners on the 16-race card. “Tom called me and said she was ready, give her a shot, so we did. She’s a pleasure to drive. She did it easily.”