Harrah's Hoosier Park: Fire Start Hanover holds on in Breeders Crown 2-Year-Old Filly Pace final

Fire Start Hanover improved off a second-place finish in her elimination a week ago to a 1:50 4/5 winner of the $600,000 Breeders Crown 2-Year-Old Filly Pace final on Friday night at Harrah's Hoosier Park.

Driven by Dexter Dunn, Fire Start Hanover was able to find a hole in third from post seven while Scarlett Hanover (Matt Kakaley) went to the top and put the 26 4/5 opening quarter on the board. Elimination winner JK Alwaysbalady (Yannick Gingras) popped pocket past that point and paced around Scarlett Hanover, but Fire Start Hanover was out and moving too, and she would forge her way around JK Alwaysbalady after the 55 3/5 half.

Around the far turn and to the 1:23 3/5 three-quarters, Fire Start Hanover kept control from a tepid first-over try of Somethingbeautiful (Scott Zeron), and the pace-setter got a little gap on the others in upper stretch. She needed that jump as both JK Alwaysbalady and Scarlett Hanover were in top gear and gaining in the last sixteenth, but they couldn't reach Fire Start Hanover as she held off JK Alwaysbalady to win by a head. Scarlett Hanover was a good third, and elimination winner Continualou (Brian Sears) came in fourth after sitting on the inside and getting shuffled. Paulas Bet Hanover (Chris Page) checked in fifth.

"When we looked at the race on paper, there were about five that I thought could leave out of there pretty hard, so it was one of those races where we had to see what was happening out of the gate. Really only a couple came out hard, so from the seven-hole we pushed out," remarked Dunn, who is now a three-time winner in Breeders Crown finals. "We got into a pretty good hole around the first turn. Yannick made his move, and I made the move not longer after. She was much sharper this week than last week, but I talked to Nifty after the race and knew she would be. We needed the line late, but she ran a good race."

The victorious daughter of Somebeachsomewhere is trained by Nifty Norman for owners Pinske Stables, David Hoese, and Lawrence Means. She now has a record of 7-2-0 from eight appearances, and she pushed her earnings to $517,586. Fire Start Hanover, who is out of the Art Major mare Fit To Frame (1:53 1/5, $16,134), was bred by Hanover Shoe Farms Inc. and was a $105,000 purchase at last year's Standardbred Horse Sale. Fit To Frame is a three-quarter sister to the Artsplace mare Glowing Report (1:49 2/5, $2,078,249). A 3-1 offering, Fire Start Hanover returned $8.20 to win.

"It's a fantastic evening. It's a race you want to win all year. It's one you circle on the calendar, and it's just great to be here," said Norman, who hoisted a Breeders Crown trophy for the fifth time in his training career. "It's a very strong division, but I have a lot of confidence in that filly. She raced good last week. She'd been a little sick prior to that, so I thought she'd be better. The draw was a little bit of a worry, and she had to work, but she's a beautiful filly. A great filly."