Meadowlands: Mission Brief concludes season with a statement

The buzz around the $144,000 Continentalvictory was centered around two fillies, Mission Brief and Wild Honey, hoping to earn divisional honors with a compelling performance. Mission Brief seized that opportunity and performed like a champion. Sent off as the prohibitive 1/9 choice, Mission Brief was hustled to the lead early in the mile and it was a lead she would never relinquish.

Sprinting past a quarter in 27 4/5, Mission Brief kicked away from Wild Honey down the backstretch and Wild Honey felt whip taps from her driver John Campbell just to try to keep up. In the meantime, Mission Brief was trotting smoothly on the lead past the half-mile in 56 seconds and she began to open up on the field on the far turn, reaching three-quarters in 1:24 1/5 while leading the field by four lengths. From there, Mission Brief had the Meadowlands homestretch all to herself and she trotted a 27 2/5 final quarter under no urging to win the Continentalvictory in 1:51 3/5 in the final start of her season, a win that put Mission Brief past $1 Million this season.

“She’s the best trotter in training,” exclaimed Yannick Gingras in a post-race interview. “No disrespect to any of the older trotters, but I wish she was in that race tonight. I don’t think any of them want any part of her.”

Ron Burke was beaming with pride in the winner’s circle as well. “She’s the best horse I’ve ever had,” said Burke. “Next year is going to be tough, she is going to face all the good ones and I am not going to duck anyone. We are going to find out if she is as good as we all think she is.”

With the win, Mission Brief concludes her season with 10 wins from 14 starts and earnings of $1,001,317. For her career, the star filly has 19 wins from 27 races and earnings of nearly $1.6 Million. She is owned by Burke Racing Stable, Our Horse Cents Stables, Jerry and Theresa Silva and Weaver Bruscemi. Wild Honey completed the exacta with Kelsey’s Keepsake and Lady Winona completing the field.

(edited release-Meadowlands)

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