Harrah's Hoosier Park: Evident Beauty determined in Moni Maker victory

Evident Beauty shipped down to Harrah's Hoosier Park after winning the Elegantimage final on Saturday up at Woodbine Mohawk Park and delivered again, taking a hard-fought 1:53 3/5 win in the $135,000 Moni Maker for sophomore filly trotters on Friday night.

Usually positioned more off-the-pace, Evident Beauty (David Miller) showed speed tonight and landed in the pocket behind Starita (Dexter Dunn) at the 27 1/5 opening quarter. Evident Beauty would then end up in the three-hole beyond that marker as Grand Swan (Lewayne Miller) pressed on on the outside and came up to get the lead away from Starita passing the 56 3/5 half. Grand Swan stayed in first to the 1:26 1/5 three-quarters, but Evident Beauty was advancing and looming first-over at that point.

In the stretch Evident Beauty went by Grand Swan and looked like she would be home-free from there, but Grand Swan battled back gamely on the inside all the way to the wire. Evident Beauty fought her re-rally off, though, holding sway by a neck. Starita finished third, followed by Measuredperfection (Trace Tetrick), Special Honor (Yannick Gingras), and Sister's Promise (Tim Tetrick).

"With the short field I just wanted to stay close to those two fillies. They were the ones I thought I had to beat," said David Miller. "At the head of the lane I trotted right around (Grand Swan), and I thought I was going to win easy. The further they went, the other one kept getting closer and closer, but my filly kept her head up in front."

Nifty Norman trains Evident Beauty, a daughter of Trixton, for owners Mel Hartman, Little E LLC., and R A W Equine Inc. This was her tenth career victory, and she has now earned $735,398. The 1-2 favorite, she paid $3.00 to win.