In a battle of champion mares, Anndrovette was too much for Put On A Show (Rocknroll Hanover) and eight others in last night’s $101,750 finals of the Overbid at the Meadowlands. With Tim Tetrick driving, she rocketed to the front from post eight and comfortably held off her fellow Dan Patch Award winner Put On A Show to win by 1 1/2 lengths.
Anndrovette was third in the first leg and then a disap- pointing seventh in round two. But the Meadowlands horse- players still had faith in her as they sent her off as the 2-1 favorite.
Going with a new strategy after his mare had tried to close from eighth and then ninth in the opening legs of the series, Tetrick took no prisoners, leaving hard from the gate to grab the lead. Put On A Show settled into second, but driver Brian Sears was content to stay there as Ginger An Fred (Real Artist) challenged Anndrovette with a first-over move. Put On A Show was locked in on the inside. She found room late but Anndrovette was long gone at that point.
“This mare, she loves to go and when you keep going fast it doesn’t seem to bother her,” Tetrick said. “Last year, she could just keep going forever. At the top of the lane tonight she just kept going faster and she would not let a horse pass her. That’s her greatest trait. She’s unbelievable and as tough as nails.”
Tetrick was the regular driver of both Anndrovette and Put On A Show before having to choose between the two for the Overbid.
“It was a tough choice,” Tetrick said. “They’re both great horses and I am glad I picked right because Anndrovette came through for me tonight.”
It was Anndrovette’s first win since last year’s Breeders Crown. Co-owner Jeff Bamond said she will head next to Yonkers for the Blue Chip Matchmaker series where she will meet, among others,
“We bought her because she was eligible for the New York Sires Stakes horse and we thought she would be a nice sires stakes horse,” Bamond said. “She blossomed from there. This has been great. She is a pleasure to be around and is a nice, big, strong mare.”
Bamond added that Anndrovette’s schedule would be “exactly the same as last year.”
Anndrovette paid $6 and turned in a stakes-record mile of 1:49.3 after cutting out opening fractions of :27 and :54.4 and 1:22.
Put On Show, on the comeback trail after missing all of 2011 because of knee problems, turned in a good effort but appeared to be the second best horse on the racetrack last night.