Meadowlands: Track record performance by Youaremycandygirl in Shady Daisy

Youaremycandygirl gave Yannick Gingras a nice birthday present to start his Hambletonian Day slate of stakes drives with a track record 1:48 2/5 victory in the $96,600 Shady Daisy for sophomore pacing fillies at the Meadowlands.

Starting from post two in the field of eight, Youaremycandygirl shot out to the lead and controlled the tempo through fractions of 26 2/5, 54, and 1:21 2/5. Kissin In The Sand (Scott Zeron), the 1-2 favorite coming off wins in the Lynch and Mistletoe Shalee, followed from the pocket and edged out near three-quarters, with Alexa's Power (Tim Tetrick) grabbing the cover to sit second-over.

In the stretch the top three fillies faced off in a great duel to the wire, but Youaremycandygirl would not yield on the inside, holding off Kissin In The Sand to win by about a head. Alexa's Power was a lapped-on third, with I'm Trigger Happy (Corey Callahan) a best-of-the-rest fourth.

"They're two great fillies. Kissin In The Sand, she's tough. She keeps on coming," said Gingras. "At the top of the stretch, I was loaded with pace and Scotty was driving on his, so I felt confident then, but she just refused to quit. She gave me a good battle.

"My filly, everything that could have gone wrong early in the year went wrong health-wise. It seems like she is healthy now. Last week at The Meadows she was really, really good and she was great today."

The defending Dan Patch Award winner for the division, Youaremycandygirl is a daughter of American Ideal trained by Ron Burke for owner W.J. Donovan. This was her 13th career victory, and she has now earned $1,113,808. The 8-5 second choice, she paid $5.40 to win.