Meadowlands: Toscano eyes pair of spots in Three Diamonds final

The last major stakes event for 2-year-old pacing fillies, the Three Diamonds, offers a single $20,000 elimination race this Saturday night at The Meadowlands with the top eight in the field of 10 returning for the November 23 finale. Trainer Linda Toscano entered the year with three impressive juvenile prospects and has two of them in the mix on Saturday looking for berths.

“Baby Your The Best has been plagued by issues this year,” said Toscano of the Captaintreacherous-sired lass that has clearly overcome adversity on her way to over $254K in earnings this year. “We had a problem with her early in the season with her tying up. Then we finally got that under control and she had a wall separation before the Breeders Crown.”

Those issues aside, Toscano believes Baby Your The Best will be all systems go when she starts from post two on Saturday night. “I was very happy with the qualifier,” Toscano said. “The headwinds were pretty strong that day and she was beaten by a good horse.”

On the board in 10 of her 11 starts this season, Baby Your The Best loses her regular pilot David Miller on Saturday but picks up Dexter Dunn for the assignment. Miller will drive Marloe Hanover (post 1), the Kindergarten final winner, for trainer Nifty Norman in the eighth race elimination.

Toscano’s Rocknificent has been as consistent as a juvenile filly could be this year winning five times in 11 starts. Also by Captaintreacherous,, Rocknificent’s dam Rocklamation finished fourth in the 2010 Three Diamonds final.

“She’s been good in pretty much every start,” said Toscano of Rocknificent. “She had a tough trip in the Kindergarten final but raced right through the wire.” Indeed Rocknificent finished third and was beaten just a half-length after a grinding first-over battle.

Scott Zeron will regain the driving assignment behind Rocklamation with Tim Tetrick committed to Lyons Sentinel, one of two fillies that earned a bye into the final.

“I knew that Tim was going to drive Lyons Sentinel,” said Toscano, “So I asked Scottie to drive her in a Kindergarten leg. He got along with her just fine.”

The Three Diamonds elimination is likely to be extremely competitive given what’s at stake along with the breadth of quality in the field. Trainer Bob McIntosh is making a rare Meadowlands appearance and the late-developing Perfect Storm (post 3) is the reason. The Somebeachsomewhere-sired filly is out of 2010 Three Diamonds runner-up Strike An Attitude. She made her U.S. debut in the Matron at Dover on November 7 and was a solid second behind Lyons Sentinel.

Trainer Nancy Johansson has a pair of fillies from the family of 2014 Three Diamonds winner and Horse of the Year JK She’salady in the field. JK First Lady (post 5) is a Western Ideal-sired daughter of the champion filly. JK Finendandy (post 9) hails from a full sister to JK She’salady and is by New York sire American Ideal.

JK First Lady has been on the board in seven of her nine career starts with earnings of $156K in her first season.

Trainer Julie Miller has an interesting candidate in The Bethinator, a Somebeachsomewhere filly that landed post 10. The Bethinator has won five of her eight starts this year including a 1:50 1/5 scorcher at The Red Mile in September. She qualified last week in sharp fashion. Ironically Toscano has a link to this filly as the trainer of her dam Pleasure Beach. “She was a big, good-gaited filly,” said Toscano, recalling the filly she trained in 2004. Pleasure Beach is from the immediate family of Sweet Lou and Captain Crunch.

While Toscano’s two pacing fillies will have to work for a place in next week’s final, her trotting filly Senorita Rita will go next in the Goldsmith Maid final on November 23. “Originally we were going to stop with her after the Kindergarten,” said Toscano of her Chapter Seven-sired filly. “She doesn’t have the experience of some of the other fillies but I think she’s got the speed.”

Only eight fillies declared for the $475K Goldsmith Maid with Breeders Crown runner-up Sister Sledge the potential favorite.

The November 23 card at The Meadowlands will also feature the Governor’s Cup and Valley Victory finals for 2-year-old pacing and trotting colts, respectively, and a quartet of TVG finals for older performers.