Delaware County Fair: Jugette title goes to Alexa's Power

Alexa's Power took advantage of an early miscue by Youaremycandygirl and a strong performance on her own to win Wednesday afternoon's $230,700 Jugette for 3-year-old filly pacers at the Delaware County Fair. The final time was 1:51 2/5.

Youaremycandygirl (Yannick Gingras) was on a break as the gate got away, leaving her Ron Burke stablemate Strong Opinion (Chris Page) on the point from the pole position. Seeing that Youaremycandygirl was out of the picture, driver Tim Tetrick left well with Alexa's Power from post five, and she was able to slide into the pocket going to the 26 4/5 opening quarter.

Tetrick sat half-in/half-out with Alexa's Power from late on the second turn into the lane, then fully committed to the outside past the 55 2/5 half. She got nose-to-nose with Strong Opinion at the 1:22 4/5 three-quarters, and although Strong Opinion managed to stave her off around the final turn, Alexa's Power took the lead for good turning into the stretch. With Tetrick pumping his fist in celebration, Alexa's Power hit the wire a length ahead of 62-1 shot E Dee's Well Said (Jim Pantaleano), who sat inside and then angled out for the drive, and Strong Opinion wound up third. Aldine Hanover (Marcus Miller) finished fourth at 88-1, and Sansovina Hanover (Matt Kakaley) rounded out the top-five.

"I had a hundred different ideas going through my head behind the gate," said Tetrick. "When I saw Yannick's filly make a mis-step I didn't want to get too far back. I knew I could maybe get the two-hole, and I thought I could out-muscle most of them from there when Youaremycandygirl made a break. My filly raced her butt off tonight, and she was super.

"I felt (Sansovina Hanover) trying to come and lock me in, and I couldn't let that happen with another Burke following me too. It turned out to be a great drive, but it could have been one of my worst ones too. She raced good. Jim (trainer Jim Campbell) had the filly on top of her game. She's been good all year. She's raced really good, but that's definitely the hardest I've ever raced her. She's always been a trip filly, but today she shows that she's a Jugette winner, so that's pretty awesome."

Alexa's Power, trained by Campbell for co-owner/breeder Jeffrey Snyder and co-owner Michael Snyder, is a daughter of Somebeachsomewhere. Alexa's Power made her 12th appearance in the winner's circle, and she has now banked $520,545. Alexa's Power returned $3.80 to win as the 4-5 favorite.

"It's my first Jugette, and I'm just so excited," remarked Campbell. "We've had a very good year with Alexa. Timmy's driven her right from her first qualifier this year. We've had a lot of fun and today was fun.

"The only thing you can do as a trainer is tell them how your horse is and what kind of a week they had and everything like that. The whole gameplan would have changed with Youaremycandygirl making a break. That's why these guys are good. They act on impulse. He wasn't going to go down getting locked in the two-hole. If she didn't win, he still made the right move. He didn't want to take that chance of getting locked-in. She was wearing a pull-down bridle, and that was a change for today. Timmy recommended it after her last race at Harrah's Philadelphia."