Red Mile: Katie's Lucky Day downs Bella Bellini in Filly Futurity

Katie's Lucky Day was able to avoid breakers early and then rallied strongly after a third-over trip to take Sunday afternoon's $351,000 Kentucky Filly Futurity for sophomore trotting fillies at The Red Mile.

Starting from a trailing post 11 and driven by Trevor Smith, Katie's Lucky Day had to avoid trouble right at the start as pole sitter Herculisa (Brett Miller) made a break in front of her. After getting around that foe and landing in the ninth spot, Katie's Lucky Day had to also navigate past an off-stride Contested Hanover (Mark MacDonald) prior to the 27 3/5 opening quarter.

While all that was going on, Beltassima (Andrew McCarthy) had established early command, but she would be overtaken by You Ato Dream (Jeff Gregory) before the quarter. Post ten starter Empressive Hill (Jordan Derue) marched up on the outside towards them, though, and she landed on the engine in the second quarter.

Empressive Hill hit the half in 54 2/5, but Hambletonian Oaks champion Bella Bellini (Dexter Dunn) was out and rolling first-over from sixth before that station. Bella Belini sustained her bid on the final turn and moved up to engage Empressive Hill, then took command passing three-quarters in 1:22 2/5. Empressive Hill made a break shortly after that, leaving Bella Bellini on a clear lead. However, Katie's Lucky Day had gone three-wide before three-quarters was reached and began to catch the eye.

In the lane Dunn called on Bella Bellini, and she did dig in gamely, but Katie's Lucky Day just kept coming and inching closer with every stride, and she was able to hit the wire a nose in front of Bella Bellini in 1:50 4/5. May Karp (Tim Tetrick), You Ato Dream, and Pub Crawl (Andy Miller) rounded out the top five.

"This filly's been great since Day One that I drove her. She proved that she could do it when she went up to Canada and did what she did (finishing third from post ten in the Elegantimage)," said Smith. "I knew today I had a filly that just belonged with these. It was just like any other race."

Todd Luther trains Katie's Lucky Day, a daughter of Uncle Peter bred by Ivan Sugg and Wayne Farthing, for his brother Greg's Black Magic Racing LLC. Katie's Lucky Day has a record of 15-6-5 from 30 starts, and she has now pocketed $512,416. She was a 12-1 shot and paid $27.20 to win.

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A supplemental entrant to the Kentucky Filly Futurity, Katie's Lucky Day will have to do the same thing to enter the Breeders Crown, but Greg Luther indicated that's a payment he will gladly make.

"This is unbelievable. She's such an awesome trotting filly. Leaving out of the gate, the 1 horse ran, and then down the backside, as soon as he pulled, someone ran in front of him. She really overcame everything today. I'm so excited to see a big win like this," he remarked. "She's going to the Breeders Crown. We've got to pay $62,000 to supplement her, but she's going in."