Continuing her strong sophomore season, Bond won the $600,000 Breeders Crown final for three-year-old filly trotters at Harrah’s Hoosier Park on Saturday, Oct. 28. Driving the filly to the track-record victory was her trainer Ake Svanstedt.
Svanstedt had his filly in the thick of the mile from the start, sitting second behind Rose Run Yolanda (Yannick Gingras) and ahead of Baroness Hill (Doug McNair). Bond left those two behind after a :26.3 first panel and took authority with a move to the top into a :56.4 half.
It was Svanstedt’s other entry, Special Way and driver Tim Tetrick, making the only challenge in the mile, taking the lead into a swift 1:24 three-quarters. Bond chased her stablemate and in deep stretch, got to her, and won by a half-length in 1:51.2, a Hoosier speed badge for sophomore filly trotters.
Special Way completed the exacta. Railee Something (Dexter Dunn) was third and Rose Run Yolanda was best of the rest.
About the late duel with his other trainee, Svanstedt said, “The only to beat Special Way was to go behind her in the stretch,” and Bond picked up the momentum to become the winner at the wire. He was obviously happy about another win in the series, saying his weekend was “going great so far.”
He said from the start he felt Bond had a “special thing” about her. Bond’s sophomore season has been tougher than her campaign at two, but the issues were resolved, he said.
Svanstedt’s stable continues to prosper, picking up its third Breeders Crown of the weekend, and he was quick to say, “I've never had as many nice horses as I do this year. I am happy. It's easy to go out every morning to train the horses.”
Ake Svanstedt Inc., Little E LLC, and L Berg Inc. own Bond, a daughter of Southwind Frank-Boccone Dolce who was bred by Diamond Creek Farm and has now earned $1,444,665 in two years of competition. She has 15 wins in 21 career starts.
Sent off as the 1-5 favourite, she paid $2.60 to win.
A replay of this race can be viewed as part of the archived Saturday card live stream, available here.
(Breeders Crown)