Freehold, NJ --- Although he is still relatively new as an owner, Lindsey Rankin understands how rare it is to find a top racehorse.
So he is trying to enjoy the ride with Lady Shadow to the fullest.
Lady Shadow is among 22 horses in Wednesday’s $298,100 Jugette for 3-year-old female pacers at the Delaware County Fair in Ohio. The field was divided into three eliminations, from which the top three in each will advance to the same-day final.
The winner of 10 of 18 career races, Lady Shadow competes in the first elimination. She drew post No. 2 for the son-and-father team of driver Doug McNair and trainer Gregg McNair and is the 5-2 morning line favorite.
Beach Gal, who is coming off a third-place finish in the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championship, is the 5-2 favorite in the second elimination. She starts from post four for driver Tim Tetrick and trainer Dave Menary. Gettingreadytoroll, who has won three in a row including the Simcoe Stakes and Miss New Jersey, is the 5-2 choice in the third division. She will start from post two with Yannick Gingras at the lines for trainer Jimmy Takter.
Lady Shadow has earned $426,753 in her career, racing to this point only in Ontario.
“We’ve only been in it for five years, but I think she’s probably our once-in-a-lifetime horse,” said Rankin, a Michigan resident who owns Lady Shadow with his wife, Connie. “So we’re going to try to enjoy it. It would be nice to make the final. We have family and friends coming to see her.
“She’s got a lot of ability. She’s a really nice filly. She’s got a big heart. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Lady Shadow won five of eight races last year, including the Battle of the Belles at Grand River Raceway, and finished second by a neck in the Ontario Sire Stakes championship.
So far this season, Lady Shadow has won five of 10 starts, including the Standardbred Breeders of Ontario Association final and two preliminary divisions of the Ontario Sire Stakes Gold Series. She won her elimination for the Canadian Breeders Championship by more than eight lengths in a career-best 1:49.2 on July 12 at Mohawk, but went off stride at the start of the final on a sloppy track and finished sixth.
But even with the miscue, which left her trailing the early leaders by 27 lengths after the first quarter and 21 lengths at the halfway point, she missed by just 1-3/4 lengths.
“We’re not really sure what happened,” Rankin said. “Doug said she was fumbly gaited and just started to run. Once he set her, she was fine, but he wasn’t real sure what that was all about. She did that once earlier this year too. She’s kind of a hot head sometimes. She’s settled down as the season has gone on, but at the beginning of the year she was a lot to handle.
“She’s got a lot of speed, but sometimes she’s hard to rate. She likes to be put up in the front, in contention, from the get-go.”
Rankin owned horses for three years beginning in 1979, but got out of the sport because of the demands of running a business that supplies graphic design equipment. Five years ago, he asked his then 11-year-old daughter Abby if she wanted to get a horse, and when the young girl’s eyes lit up, he was back in the game.
“Now we’re kind of hooked back into it,” said the now-retired Rankin, who owns six horses.
He bought Lady Shadow for C$19,000 at the Forest City Sale in Ontario. The filly is a daughter of 2008 Little Brown Jug winner Shadow Play out of the mare Lady Camella. The dam’s family includes 1962 Little Brown Jug winner Lehigh Hanover as well as famed trotter Peter Volo.
“I liked a lot about her; her conformation,” Ranki