Delaware County Fair: Sans Defaut beats the boys in Old Oaken Bucket

Sans Defaut, the lone filly in the five-horse field, was a 1:55 winner of the $83,800 Old Oaken Bucket for 3-year-old trotters on Thursday afternoon at the Delaware County Fair.

Bronze Yankee (David Miller), Emma Town Bud (Ronnie Wrenn Jr.) and Mcmatters (Mike Wilder) all broke before or after the start, leaving just Sans Defaut (Matt Kakaley) and Hobbs (Jason Bartlett) in contention. Sans Defaut yielded for the pocket behind Hobbs passing the 28 second opening quarter and waited in that position through a half in 57 1/5 and a three-quarters in 1:26 3/5.

On the final turn Kakaley angled out of the pocket with Sans Defaut, and she joined Hobbs on the front-end before they turned for home. Through the stretch Hobbs tried to hold off the outside challenge, but it was to no avail as Sans Defaut was full of trot, pulling away to score by a length and three-quarters. Hobbs wound up second, and Bronze Yankee, who was able to catch up to the top two after the early break, was a non-threatening third.

Trainer Ron Burke could have entered Sans Defaut in one of yesterday's Buckette divisions for sophomore trotting fillies, but accidentally put her in this race instead. Even though that meant having to face males, he said he didn't mind.

"Bucket, Buckette, I don't know, I didn't even look. I just saw Bucket, and I put her in the race. I was like, well, whatever, we'll go against the boys," said Burke. "I've said all year, I think the fillies this year are tougher than the colts. I've raced a filly against the colts in the Hambo, and I'm sure we're going to do it again in the future. I don't think it's a big deal to race them anyhow.

"She has everything. She goes to Lexington; she has the Breeders Crown. She is a full sister to Southwind Frank that was one of our top horses. We've had big hopes for her. She got kind of lost behind Crucial and Sister Sledge in our barn, but in the last couple weeks she seems to be getting better. First time no shoes today, and she seemed like a little bit even quicker off the gate with that. I was kind of mad at Matt when he didn't park Jason, but then it was like 'what the Hell, maybe he does know better than me.'"

Breeder Crawford Farms also co-owns Sans Defaut, a Muscle Hill filly, with partners Burke Racing Stable LLC., J&T Silva- Purnel & Libby, and Weaver Bruscemi LLC. Sans Defaut is now an eight-time winner in her career, and she has made $253,706. She was sent off at 6-1 and paid $14.80.