EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ — After six victories in Ontario, three-year-old trotting filly Bee A Magician shipped to The Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey for Saturday night’s $265,500 Del Miller Memorial.
The filly, owned by Ottawa resident Mel Hartman and his partners Herb Liverman and David McDuffee of Florida, had already bested some of North America’s best fillies in the Casual Breeze and Elegantimage Stakes at Mohawk Racetrack in June, and Meadowlands fans wisely sent her off as their top choice from Post 1.
With Meadowlands regular Brian Sears aboard, Bee A Magician watched the :27.1 opening quarter from fourth, but effortlessly overtook the leaders heading for the :55.1 half. The duo clocked a 1:23.1 three-quarters, and when Sears did little more than shake a line heading into the stretch Bee A Magician accelerated away from her peers to a four and one-half length triumph in a world record 1:51.
The clocking, which lowered the former world record by two-fifths of a second, establishes Bee A Magician as the fastest three-year-old trotting filly in harness racing’s history.
A daughter of top Ontario sire Kadabra, who stands at Tara Hills Farm in Port Perry, Bee A Magician has earned $1,273,403 in her two-year career. Last year’s Ontario Sires Stakes division champion, the filly will make her next start on Hambletonian Day, August 4, at The Meadowlands, the only question being whether the Richard “Nifty” Norman trainee faces off against the fillies in the Hambletonian Oaks or against the colts in the Hambletonian.
Prior to Saturday’s world record performance Hartman described the opportunity to take on the colts as “very, very, very tempting,” but Norman said from the winner’s circle on Saturday that the race’s return to same-day heats dulls that temptation.
Following her exploits in New Jersey Bee A Magician is expected to return to Ontario, where she will take aim on a second provincial title.