Meadowlands: Test Of Faith eclipses world record in Dorothy Haughton Memorial

Test Of Faith lowered the world record for a 4-year-old pacing mare on a mile track to 1:47 in winning Saturday night's $175,000 Dorothy Haughton Memorial in a dazzling performance at the Meadowlands. That clocking just missed Shartin's overall world record for a distaffer of 1:46 4/5.

There was plenty of speed in the early stages of the race as Gia's Surreal (Mark MacDonald), Racine Bell (Jason Bartlett) and Grace Hill (Andrew McCarthy) all blasted out to get around Test Of Faith (David Miller), who settled in fourth from post one as Grace Hill cleared Racine Bell to take over the top spot beyond the 26 second opening quarter.

Grace Hill kept the tempo lively, reaching the half in 53 2/5, and Miller would give Test Of Faith her first-over marching orders past that station. Test Of Faith took her time on the outside rather than coming with a quick brush, moving into second nearing the 1:20 3/5 three-quarters and pinning Racine Bell on the inside in the pocket.

Late on the bend, Test Of Faith overpowered Grace Hill, and then quickly opened up a gap on the others en route to a 4 3/4 length victory. Amazing Dream N (Todd McCarthy) gapped Test Of Faith's cover from second-over but kept grinding away to finish in the runner-up spot, and Racine Bell had to settle for third. Lyons Sentinel (Tim Tetrick) closed from tenth to fourth in the last quarter, and Watch Me Now N (Yannick Gingras) rounded out the top-five.

"I kind of expected that (early speed)," said Miller. "I thought [Gia's Surreal] and [Racine Bell] would leave. I wasn't expecting [Grace Hill] to leave as hard as she did. I was expecting fast fractions, and I was just wanting to be close, not be too far back, and just have her in a good spot.

"When I moved her, I tried to hustle her along on the last turn to keep Jason in, and that worked. I actually felt pretty good, and then I saw 1:20 3/5. I was like 'ehh, we'll see,' so I popped her plugs, and she paced hard all the way to the wire."

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The defending Horse of the Year in the sport, Test Of Faith, a 4-year-old daughter of Art Major, pushed her record to 27-6-0 from 34 career starts for trainer Brett Pelling and owners Mel Segal, Kentuckiana Racing Stable, and Eddie Gran. She has pocketed $1,919,701 and paid $2.60 to win as the 1-5 favorite.

"I was standing next to Jim King in the paddock, and I said to him 'it's going to be close here,'" said Pelling on the possibility of going a sub-1:47 mile and equaling or beating Shartin's record.

Pelling added that she'll get two weeks off and race on Hambletonian Day.