Red Mile: Niki Hill serves notice in Bluegrass Series for sophomore pacing fillies

Niki Hill, making her second start back after being on the bench since late May, put the other 3-year-old pacing fillies on alert with an impressive 1:49 victory in the $150,000 Bluegrass Series dash on Saturday afternoon at The Red Mile.

Boudoir Hanover (Todd McCarthy), coming off a win in the Kentucky Championship Series final over the same oval, took the lead away from Max Contract (Andy Miller) passing the 28 second opening quarter, with Niki Hill (Dexter Dunn) moving up on the outside. McCarthy made Niki Hill work hard to clear Boudoir Hanover for the top spot, leaving her out most of a 26 2/5 second quarter before releasing Niki Hill approaching the 54 2/5 half.

From there, Niki Hill would keep control around the final bend and through three-quarters in 1:22, and even though Boudoir Hanover and Max Contract angled out and had dead-aim at her through the lane, neither one put a serious scare into Niki Hill in the stretch drive, as she held sway to score by three-parts of a length.

"It's been a shame she's missed the whole season so far, but it's also great to have her back and get a few races at the end of the year," remarked Dunn. "We were real happy with her [race] at the Meadowlands last start. She's a great horse; she's got a great will to win. I was confident in her."

A daughter of Always B Miki bred by Stephen Dey, Niki Hill is trained by the red-hot Chris Ryder for owner Tom Hill. Niki Hill has ten wins and two seconds from 13 starts, has now pocketed $984,056, and paid $5.58 to win as the favorite.

--quote courtesy of Ray Cotolo--