Merry Meadow an Honorable Miss Contender
Between 2000 and 2003, Gold Mover won six graded stakes for trainer Mark Hennig but largely raced in the shadow of fellow Edward P. Evans homebred stablemates Raging Fever and Summer Colony, both Grade 1 winners.
More than a decade later, Hennig has another hard-knocking filly in Merry Meadow, a contender in Monday's Grade 2, $200,000 HRTV Honorable Miss for female sprinters at six furlongs.
The 4-year-old daughter of Grade 1-winning sprinter Henny Hughes has been worse than third only twice in 21 lifetime starts with more than $458,000 in purses earnings and five wins, including the Grade 3 Vagrancy Handicap on May 17 at Belmont Park.
In her subsequent start, Merry Meadow got nailed at the wire of the seven-furlong Grade 3 Bed o' Roses Handicap on June 21, losing to Hot Stones by a nose. Hot Stones is entered in today's Grade 3, $200,000 Shuvee at 1 1/8 miles.
"She ran her heart out," Hennig said. "She's a filly that's on the improve, and she's really improved from a year ago when she finally broke her maiden after a lot of tries. I think seven-eighths is right at the edge of what she doesn't want to do. She ran as well as she could and we were happy with it. A little turnback in distance here hopefully will help. I think 6 ½ furlongs is the optimum distance for her."
Hennig has drawn comparisons between Merry Meadow and Gold Mover, winner of the 2000 Schuylerville at Saratoga - then a Grade 2 - and back-to-back editions of the Grade 2 Princess Rooney.
"You get some horses that always seem to run to the competition. She's one of those horses," Hennig said of Merry Meadow. "While she was trying to break her maiden, she was running against some nice fillies. She would run as hard as she could and it didn't matter. You'd think, 'She's in tough this week,' and she'd be second again.
"I think as she moves through her conditions, she just seems to run to the level. She's always going to put out. She's always going to try hard. When I had all those good fillies, I always described Gold Mover as the blue-collar girl. This filly is the same way. She just tries hard, every day. Whether it's morning or afternoon, she's going to put a lot of effort into it. Those kinds make our job easier."