Meadowlands: Test Of Faith battles, then blitzes foes in Graduate final for pacing mares

The hoped-for duel between Test Of Faith and Mikala developed in the $125,000 Graduate Series final for 4-year-old pacing mares on Saturday night at the Meadowlands, and after a middle-half battle, Test Of Faith drew off powerfully to win in 1:48 1/5.

Fire Start Hanover (Dexter Dunn) shot out from the pole position to the early lead, and that appeared to catch some by surprise. As the pace slowed up on the first turn, many horses in the group, including Test Of Faith (David Miller) and Mikala (Brian Sears) wound up two-wide, and the quarter rang up in just 27 4/5. Test Of Faith drove on to take charge past that marker, and then Mikala advanced to try and overtake her.

Mikala got the lead on the outside in the backstretch, but Test Of Faith and Miller would not let her clear. Despite the fight for the front, the tempo remained not all that fast, with the half ringing up in just 55 3/5, but that changed on the final bend as Mikala and Test Of Faith zipped a 26 2/5 panel to put three-quarters on the board in 1:22 flat.

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Test Of Faith said enough's enough after three-quarters and accelerated with a kick that Mikala could not match, and Test Of Faith went on to an open-lengths victory over Fire Start Hanover, who out-finished Mikala to grab runner-up honors. Grace Hill (Andrew McCarthy) rallied for fourth and Easy To Please (Jordan Stratton) checked in fifth.

"Everybody was trying to get into a spot. My original plan was just to be the last one to the front. Everybody was kind of waiting for me to make my move, but I was waiting on them," said Miller. "We ended up going slow fractions, so finally when I got almost to the half I made up my mind I was just going to go ahead and keep going with her. Honestly we weren't going much, and [Mikala] actually didn't look that good to me. I was real happy when the half flashed up in 55 3/5 instead of like 53 or something. I felt pretty confident around the last turn, and she does the rest.

"She's an amazing horse. I can't say enough about her. I'm very excited every time I get to sit behind her."

Brett Pelling trains Test Of Faith, a daughter of Art Major, for owners Mel Segal, Kentuckiana Racing Stable, and Eddie Gran. She has a record of 26-6-0 from 33 career starts, and she has now pocketed $1,834,701. She paid $2.40 to win as the 1-5 favorite.

"I'm just glad [Miller] looked around because there was a whole train of them coming, so he did the right thing," said Pelling. "She's awesome."