Meadowlands: Sambuca Hanover wins Kindergarten final for filly trotters

Sambuca Hanover picked up by far the biggest victory of her career in Saturday night's $241,300 Kindergarten Series final for rookie filly trotters at the Meadowlands, winning in a life's-best 1:54 2/5.

Honey's Sweet (Yannick Gingras) was the 6-5 favorite in the race, but she made a break behind the gate and lost all chance. Meanwhile, Sambuca Hanover, driven by David Miller, showed speed from post five but yielded to sit in the pocket behind Eloise (Corey Callahan) nearing the 27 2/5 opening quarter. Internationalmodel (Scott Zeron) then moved to the outside from fourth beyond that station, and she would move up to challenge Eloise in the backstretch. Eloise was stubborn at the inside but did let Internationalmodel clear past the 57 second half-mile marker, leaving Slip Sliding Away (Ake Svanstedt) first-over.

Slip Sliding Away stalled out under urging on the final bend, putting the two-wide tier in difficulty behind her, and Callahan also didn't want to sit behind Internationalmodel any longer going to the 1:26 1/5 three-quarters, so he brought Eloise off the cones to challenge her again. Sambuca Hanover shifted out to track Eloise, who hit the front before they entered the stretch drive.

Even though Eloise turned for home first, Sambuca Hanover was moving well to her outside and trotted by her in the upper part of the stretch. It appeared initially like it might be a fairly routine win for Sambuca Hanover once she cleared, but 90-1 shot Glamorous Hanover (Todd McCarthy) had other ideas, as she tipped out from near the back of the pack to get around the retreating Internationalmodel, dove back to the pylons and then came with a furious surge to the wire. Glamorous Hanover ran out of racetrack, though, as Sambuca Hanover held her off by a head, with 45-1 shot Marg In Charge (Dexter Dunn) third. Miss I La (Joe Bongiorno) got fourth and Go For Gaagaa No (Jordan Stratton) checked in fifth.

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"She got away well. David gave her a great drive, and the race worked out perfectly for her. We were hoping for a check, but it worked out a lot better than that," said winning co-owner Paul Bordogna. "She's a big filly. We've really been going slowly with her. We haven't pushed her too much. She was good early. She had a little soreness. We were out in Indiana and she was going to be good, but she needed some work after the race. She was good tonight. I was holding my breath at the end. When (Miller) said he couldn't get the plugs out, that's the last thing you want to have happen at that point in a race like this. It was very exciting.

"We'll see what happens (with her schedule). If you win this, I think we can get into the next final, and if we're eligible to that, I'm sure we'll take a shot."

Nifty Norman trains Sambuca Hanover, a daughter of Bar Hopping bred by Hanover Shoe Farms. David McDuffee and Mel Hartman also co-own the $200,000 Standardbred Horse Sale purchase, who has five wins and a second in ten starts and earnings of $180,850. She paid $19.40 to win as an 8-1 offering.