The $120,000 Courageous Lady goes postward this Saturday (October 13) at MGM Northfield Park. The Grand Circuit race is an open harness racing event for North America's top 3-year-old filly pacers and has attracted a very competitive slate of foes vying to become this year's champion. The race highlights an impressive card offering over $780,000 in purses.
Perfect Storm will start from post three and has been installed as the 3-1 luke-warm favorite. The Robert McIntosh trainee has been a solid player in this year's sophomore pacing filly stakes scene and that has earnings of six figures this season. David Miller has been given the driving assignment.
The morning line second choice, Dance Club, has drawn the rail for trainer Ron Burke. She enters off two consecutive victories, including the $30,000 Liberty Bell at Harrah's Philadelphia. Chris Page has been named to pilot.
Ron Burke and Brian Brown each have entered two fillies in Saturday's featured event. Burke will also start Drama Act, the 9-2 third-choice contender from post-8 with Matt Kakaley. Brown will harness Pettycoat Business, the lone supplement to this year's Courageous Lady, a 6-1 shot from post-6 with Dexter Dunn driving and Blazin Grace, a 15-1 longshot from the seven-hole.
Below is the complete 2020 $120,000 Courageous Lady field:
PP Horse Trainer Driver Morning Line
1 Dance Club Ron Burke Chris Page 7-2
2 Keystone Eureka Ryan Miller Aaron Merriman 6-1
3 Perfect Storm Robert McIntosh David Miller 3-1
4 Ellagator Chris Mc Guire Ronnie Wrenn Jr. 20-1
5 JK Finendandy Jennifer Bongiorno Joe Bongiorno 10-1
6 Pettycoat Business Brian Brown Dexter Dunn 6-1
7 Blazin Grace Brian Brown TBA 15-1
8 Drama Act Ron Burke Matt Kakaley 9-2
*Final drivers are due 9 PM on Tuesday.
This year's Courageous Lady has been slated as race 12 on a 16-race program. A $10,000 guaranteed Pick-4 pool has been added to the night. The guaranteed Pick-4 will begin in race 11.
The undercard will feature eight $75,000 Ohio Sires Stakes Consolations and Northfield's annual Lady Drivers Challenge featuring all female drivers.
MGM Northfield Park reminds horsemen of four upcoming fall late closers. Draws for these late closers start tomorrow (October 13) for racing on Sunday.
All late closers carry a condition of: Non-winners of Two Pari-Mutuel Races (Ohio Sired N/W Three) or Non-Winners of $20,000 Lifetime (Through 9/30/2020).
There is no pre-nomination necessary for any of the late closers, which all consist of four preliminary legs ($7,500 Purse) plus an $18,000 final. Horsemen can simply enter on the scheduled draw date for a specific late closer and pay the entry fee the night of the horse’s scheduled start. A one-time entry of $300 covers the entire series and a horse does not have to race in every leg to be eligible for the final.
Call Northfield’s race office at 330.467.4101 ext. 52300 with any questions.
by Ayers Ratliff, for Northfield Park