Meadowlands: Lady Shadow closes out the stakes with aplomb

On a night of eye-opening performances, the one that left everyone's eyes the widest may have come in the last stakes race of the night as Lady Shadow paced a 2:00 3/5 mile and an eighth, breaking the world record set by Always B Miki earlier on the card, in winning the $229,900 Golden Girls for mares.

There was wicked speed right from the get-go as Frost Damage Blues (Andy Miller) sailed away from post eight and hit the opening quarter in 24 4/5. Lady Shadow (Yannick Gingras) was parked at that point, and remained that way until just past the 53 second half-mile marker, when she crossed over to the cones.

Gingras kept the pedal to the metal, reaching the three-quarters in 1:20 4/5, and the mile in 1:47, which would have broken the world record for an aged pacing mare on a mile track by three-fifths of a second if the race had been at the standard one-mile distance. But Lady Shadow and her connections had to "settle" for the mile and an eighth record. Solar Sister (Brian Sears), who had traffic trouble after starting from a trailing post 11, had good pace through the lane and was up for second, beaten four lengths by the winner, and Inittowinafortune (Scott Zeron) finished third.

"Wow, 24 4/5 parked, yeah that's a first," Gingras said, with a laugh. "I didn't know actually until after the race how fast we went the first quarter. I knew it was fast, but I was just trying to take my time to get there. I knew it was hard, but it wasn't a press to get there. If I knew it was 47 flat, I might have let her go a little bit. Down the stretch I was just letting her pace. I knew I had a big lead, so I wasn't chasing her, and I didn't kick the earplugs. I just kind of let her do it on her own, but that would have been cool - 1:46 4/5 or something."

Ron Adams trains Lady Shadow, a 5-year-old mare by Shadow Play, for owners David Kryway, Carl Atley, Ed Gold, and Bfj Stable. This was the 21st win of her career, and she has now earned $1,059,341. The 3-5 favorite, Lady Shadow paid $3.40.