They say contrasting styles make for great boxing matches. The same could be true for sophomore stakes races where horses with freshman experience tangle with rivals that didn't exist a year earlier but have advanced to the top rung. That's the case this Friday night when Canada's champion 2-year-old trotting filly from 2024 Monalishi makes her U.S. debut in one of two divisions of the New York New York Mile at MGM Yonkers Raceway. A proven commodity as a freshman, the filly from the first crop of Green Manalishi will also be making her first start over a half-mile track and meeting sophomores she's not seen before. Then there is EL Nightwish, a Chapter Seven-sired filly with royal bloodlines that made just one start as a 2-year-old, and then returned this year for trainer Lucas Wallin to start her stakes season in Excelsior Series company in New York, as opposed to the top tier of the Sire Stakes. Now a winner in all four of her starts, including a division of the Empire Breeders Classic, EL Nightwish faces her toughest test to date. "She needed time to mature, and we gave it to her," said Wallin of EL Nightwish, a half-sister to New York stallion E L Titan and a host of solid performers from a maternal line that includes the brothers Angus, Andover and Conway Hall. Wallin's approach has paid off nicely so far, with EL Nightwish not only winning but going faster and racing against better in the process. "She needed to get some experience, and I thought putting her in the Excelsior would allow her to get it and hopefully do well," said Wallin. The 1:52 4/5 lifetime-best achieved in the Empire Breeders Classic on June 13 at Vernon Downs was a convincing performance, as driver Dexter Dunn kept EL Nightwish in third through an extremely soft pace, yet flashed a 27 1/5 final quarter to win going away. "I don't think we've seen the bottom yet," said Wallin, who said that the filly is Hambletonian Oaks eligible. "I'm not sure if she'll be at her best in August or October." Wallin was hoping to find the New York New York Mile a bit easier than it came up, with the sixth race $50,000 division much deeper. "It's definitely the tougher of the two," said Wallin. "You've got Monalishi and R Lady W. Those are two very nice fillies." ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter Trainer Blake Macintosh had a banner year with Monalishi last year, winning six of 10 starts, including the Peaceful Way at Woodbine Mohawk Park. She was good enough for a spot in the Mohawk Million as well and finished the year with six wins and $413,280 earned. Though she captured her first start in early May, Macintosh wasn't happy with the way she finished. A second-place effort in the SBOA Stakes on May 17 was an improvement of sorts, but high winds that night played havoc on the filly's performance. "Her third start, a Gold division, she didn't race well, and her blood came back off, so we treated her with antibiotics and gave her a few weeks to recover," said Macintosh. Monalishi regained top form with an outstanding effort on the front-end in her June 20 domination of an Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Series race, trotting home in 1:52 3/5 and tying her career-best. Macintosh recognizes this will be Monalishi's first start ever over a half-mile track, but he didn't seem overly concerned. "She's been around the five-eighths turns and had no trouble," said MacIntosh. "She'll also have a different driver." The new hands will be those of Yannick Gingras, subbing for regular pilot James MacDonald. Dexter Dunn was EL Nightwish's third different driver this year, and he'll stick with the filly following their success in the Empire Breeders. EL Nightwish drew post three and Monalishi landed post five in the seven-horse field that includes two other stakes winners in R Lady W (post four) and Seventh Gen (post two). Sophomore pacing fillies also get a chance to shine on the MGM Yonkers Trot and MGM Grand Messenger program on Friday night, and the second $50,000 division of the Park MGM finds a field of five fillies, some with maternal backgrounds that have much to do with how they arrived in this particular stakes event. Though Martini Star (post four) has only won once in her 13 career starts, the Huntsville-sired filly just may have the pedigree to handle this assignment. A daughter of Shanghai Lil, who captured this race at Yonkers when it was known as the Lady Maud back in 2009, Martini Star is the eighth foal from the $1.07 million-winning daughter of Jenna's Beach Boy. In 2008, Cheyenne Trish won an elimination race for the Lady Maud at Yonkers. The gifted daughter of Artiscape would be a stakes star in her early years and a top pacing mare in her later years, doing well on both sides of the Hudson River for trainer Robbie Siegleman. Like her dam, Please Be You enters the Park MGM following a victory in a New Jersey Standardbred event at the Meadowlands last Friday where she came out of nowhere to score in a career-best 1:50 3/5 mile. Unraced as a freshman, Please Be You has advanced nicely in 10 starts this year and could be the horse to beat from the pole position for trainer Linda Toscano on Friday. The Last Martini is the actual star of the Martini tandem in the Park MGM divisions (races two and four). The Breeders Crown runner-up to division champion Miki And Minnie in 2024 has returned to form for trainer Jared Bako following up a third-place finish in the Fan Hanover and a dominating 1:51 effort in a New York Sire Stakes at Vernon on June 21. The Last Martini went over $600K in career earnings with the victory, her sixth in 14 career starts. She drew post three in the first division of the Park MGM. Martini Star is the other cocktail-oriented filly, and she goes in the second division from post four. Macintosh noted that the $28,000 yearling buy Monalishi is not eligible to the Hambletonian Oaks and will return to Ontario for Sire Stakes and Grand Circuit racing until the fall where he hopes she'll be ready to battle in the Breeders Crown. Quite astute at the yearling sales each year, MacIntosh went to his iPad for more details before pulling the trigger at the 2023 Harrisburg sale. "I didn't like the way either of the mares' previous two foals looked," said Macintosh. "One toed out and the other toed in." Monalishi hails from a full sister to the 2013 Hambletonian winner Royalty For Life.