Harness: Millies Possesion living up to her family tree

It’s not particularly easy for an unraced 2-year-old to make it in the sophomore stakes races. The lack of competitive experience tends to put those without sufficient practice up against it. Such was the case for Millies Possesion , a homebred of Jules Siegel’s Fashion Farms heading into this season.

“She had a lot of catching up to do,” said Jim Campbell, Millies Possesion ’s trainer. “She’s way ahead of where I expected her to be.”

That’s probably a big understatement for the undefeated daughter of Possess The Will from the Broadway Hall-sired broodmare Fashion Athena. With just one pari-mutuel race before heading into Pennsylvania Sire Stakes competition, Millies Possesion has won three straight elite events in the state and on June 9 scored in a $30,000 Pa. All Stars division at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.

“She was very good on Sunday,” said Campbell. “Dexter (Dunn) never pulled the plugs.”

The 1:54 1/5 victory on the front end made the homebred a perfect four-for-four in her first season at the racetrack and opened the doors to bigger races down the road, including the Hambletonian Oaks. “She’s going to go next on July 6 in the Reynolds at The Meadowlands,” said Campbell. “After that we have a few options, then hopefully the Hambletonian Oaks.”

Millies Possesion hails from a long line of Jim Campbell-trained and Jules Siegel-owned trotting fillies with plenty of natural talent. She’s the second foal of Fashion Athena, a daughter of Broadway Hall who produced the stakes-winning Muscle M Up as her first foal. Fashion Athena is a daughter of Athena Hanover, a mare sired by Campbell’s 1995 Hambletonian winner Tagliabue.

“If I remember correctly Mr. Siegel bought Athena Hanover for $30,000 at an Adios Day sale,” said Campbell. “She was a super filly as a 2-year-old and won seven of her eight starts.” Athena Hanover was a dominant performer on the same Pennsylvania Sire Stakes circuit her granddaughter is dominating today.

For Campbell, patience tends to pay off and though he realized Millies Possesion was quite promising as a juvenile, he made a decision early to stop with her and wait for next year. “She trained down well and was a top filly but she began to sore up,” said Campbell. “I believe we stopped with her in April.”

Campbell was more than convinced he had a good one and when he brought Millies Possesion back in to train in January the filly proved to be worth the wait.

“She’s a natural,” said Campbell, who saw similarities in the family through the last few generations. While Fashion Athena’s first foal was by Muscle Hill and by some standards would have greatness anticipated, Millies Possesion ’s dad is the lesser known to some, Possess The Will.

“He won the Breeders Crown as a 2-year-old and was the divisional champion,” said Campbell of 1:54 performer as a juvenile in 2011. By Donato Hanover out of a Self Possessed mare, Possess The Will never quite reached his potential for Campbell in 2012. “He got sick on us early in the season and it took weeks to get him back where he needed to be,” Campbell said, recalling the 2012 3-year-old season. “We’d train him down and he had a couple of decent starts but every time he would work hard he would come down sick again.”

The frustration on the racetrack wasn’t enough to dissuade ownership from breeding Possess The Will to some mares and it appears as if Millies Possesion ’s 3-year-old season may do wonders for making up for what her sire did not accomplish as a sophomore.

Millies Possesion has appeared to be completely relaxed and flawlessly gaited for Campbell this year and there’s certainly plenty of reason to believe she’ll be able to handle trotting fillies from other locales.

For Campbell, her pedigree is a who’s who of horses he’s had great success with on both the sire and dams side. Ironically most of the success in those generations occurred as 2-year-olds, with Broadway Hall (sire of Fashion Athena) a juvenile champion and both Fashion Athena and Athena Hanover enjoying their greatest success in their first year on the racetrack. Perhaps Millies Possesion ’s lack of 2-year-old racing has paved the way for her to become a standout as a sophomore.

Campbell’s top 3-year-old from last year, Crystal Fashion, has returned as a 4-year-old and appears on his way to another impressive season. The gelded son of Cantab Hall dispatched a solid field in the June 9 $50,000 Graduate leg at Tioga Downs in 1:53 3/5 for driver Tim Tetrick. “I was very happy with his race on Sunday and I think he was very strong in his start prior at Pocono,” said Campbell. “That was a much tougher group he faced on Sunday.”

Indeed, though Crystal Fashion had the pole position he was in with some heavy hitters including Six Pack and Phaetosive as well as 2017 Breeders Crown champion Fiftydallarbill. A winner in excess of $1 million as a sophomore, Crystal Fashion has won two of his four races this season and Campbell is hopeful he’ll continue to shine. “We’ll go in the next leg of the Graduate (June 21 Meadowlands) with him,” said Campbell. “Then we’ll point him for the Hambletonian Maturity.”

Obviously Campbell knows there are some other 4-year-olds out there, most notably Atlanta, that could prove major obstacles for Crystal Fashion this year. “It’s a very talented group of 4-year-olds this year and the aged horses are pretty solid as well. You can’t predict who they’ll face, you just have to have them ready,” Campbell said.

Campbell is generally tight-lipped about the progress of his 2-year-olds at this time of the year and he didn’t change that stance much when speaking about the juvenile half-brother to Millies Possesion by Donato Hanover named Authentic Fashion. “He made a break last week,” Campbell said. “We’ve made some equipment changes with him and hopefully he’ll be better this week.” Authentic Fashion qualified successfully on June 11 at Harrah’s Philadelphia finishing second behind stablemate Saxon in a 2:02 3/5 mile.

While some of Campbell’s youngsters are still finding themselves, Millies Possesion appears to be a sophomore trotting filly on the path to major stakes glory.