Harrah's Hoosier Park: Geocentric, Pass Line stay hot in Breeders Crown 2YO Filly Pace elims

Geocentric improved to nine-for-nine and Pass Line posted her sixth consecutive victory in the two $25,000 Breeders Crown 2-Year-Old Filly Pace eliminations on Friday night at Harrah's Hoosier Park.

Racing in the second of the elims, Geocentric (Tim Tetrick) advanced from the two-hole to the top beyond the 27 2/5 quarter. Geocentric remained in charge through easy fractions of 56 3/5 and 1:25 from three, then sprinted home in 26 seconds to defeat a fast-finishing My Girl EJ (Dexter Dunn) by a pair of lengths in 1:51. Early pace-setter Canigetalouploup (Ronnie Wrenn Jr.) was third, followed by Caviart Belle (Yannick Gingras) and Peace Talks (David Miller). Trainer Ron Burke wound up with a pair of finalists in My Girl EJ and Canigetalouploup.

There was a delay to the start of the race caused by Geocentric, but trainer Brian Brown said it was not a major issue.

"She had picked a shoe half off in the post parade, so we had to get it fixed. She's fine," he relayed. "The filly doesn't really do anything wrong. She's pretty well-mannered.

"(No anxious moments) in the last couple weeks. A little bit when My Girl EJ was coming at us down the stretch. We held her off a couple but Timmy didn't pull the plugs yet."

Brown trains the Diamond Creek Farm-bred by Sweet Lou for owners Milt Leeman, Alan Keith, Jim Stambaugh and Joe Sbrocco. Purchased for $55,000 at last year's Standardbred Horse Sale, she has earned $549,251 to go with her undefeated status and returned $2.60 to win as the 1-5 choice.

Ontario Sires Stakes champion Pass Line (Gingras) won the first elimination in 1:53. Genie Hanover (Todd McCarthy) blasted to the top in a 27 second opening quarter but was third by the time they got to the 56 3/5 half as Blue Pacific (Miller) moved around her from the pocket and then Its A Love Thing (James MacDonald) rushed from fourth to first.

Watching all that from fifth was Pass Line, but Gingras sent her first-over early on the final bend, and she came with a blitz that carried her into the top spot on the outside nearing the 1:26 three-quarters. In the stretch Pass Line put Its A Love Thing away for good and then held off closing bids by Blue Pacific and Camerican (Wrenn Jr.), who both got shuffled on the inside, to prevail by a quarter of a length. Behest (Scott Zeron), another Brian Brown trainee, and Its A Love Thing secured the last two spots in the final. Burke qualified two more for the final in Pass Line and Camerican.

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"There was quite a lot of movement in the race. When I came they were going pretty slow, but yeah, it's exciting for the fans any way," Gingras said. "She can go fast. Maybe I called on her a little too quick, but like I said, we were going pretty slow there around the last turn.

"This one's Burke all the way, All Bets Off out of Breakheart Pass. They have more and more mares and the quality of them has really gotten better in the last five years, so it's real good."

Pass Line was bred by Burke Racing Stable LLC. and Weaver Bruscemi LLC. and is co-owned by them in partnership with Frank Baldachino. Pass Line has a record of 10-1-1 from 12 starts, has pocketed $390.948 and paid $3.40 to win as the 3-5 favorite.

Here's how the field will line up behind the gate for next Friday night's $700,000 (est.) final:

1-Canigetlouploup
2-Geocentric
3-Behest
4-Pass Line
5-Camerican
6-Its A Love Thing
7-Caviart Belle
8-My Girl EJ
9-Blue Pacific
10-Peace Talks