Northfield: Rock Me Baby matches track record in winning Courageous Lady

After being purchased for $82,000 from the mixed portion of the Standardbred Horse Sale, Rock Me Baby made her first start for trainer Heidi Rohr and owner Thomas Dillon in Saturday night's $120,000 Courageous Lady for 3-year-old pacing fillies at Northfield Park, and it was a winning debut for the new connections as Rock Me Baby rolled to a 1:52 victory, setting a new stakes record and tying the track record.

Driven by Tim Tetrick, Rock Me Baby landed in third early from post five, but Tetrick wanted the lead and moved to get it from Mother Of Art (Ronnie Wrenn Jr.) at the 26 4/5 opening quarter. Rock Me Baby would go on to reach the half in 54 4/5, with 4-5 favorite L A Delight (John Campbell) moving first-over out of the fourth position.

L A Delight got to within a length of Rock Me Baby at the 1:23 three-quarters, but her bid stalled at that point, and Rock Me Baby remained in front turning for home. Mother Of Art took one final run at the leader in the stretch up the passing lane, but it was to no avail as Rock Me Baby remained clear, winning by a length and a quarter. L A Delight held third, ahead of Yankee Moonshine (Don Irvine Jr.) and Dime A Dance (Mike Wilder).

"(Trainer Heidi Rohr) and the connections did a great job with this filly. She was really sharp tonight," said Tetrick. "I thought (Wrenn Jr.) would be happy to follow me if I got to him and looked strong enough. My filly whipped right around to the front. That was a pretty big half there; I was a little worried about that, but I got a little breather around this turn. A good filly came at me down the backside, but my filly dug in. The other filly has had a long year, so my filly dug in, and she was fresh all the way to the wire."

A daughter of Rock N Roll Heaven, Rock Me Baby won for the fourth time from 21 career tries, and she has now earned $164,228. The 8-5 second choice behind L A Delight, Rock Me Baby paid $5.40 to win.