When trainer Mike Russo was given the chance to choose a couple New Jersey-bred horses to train for breeder-owners Joe and Joann Thomson, he decided to pick a filly and a colt. He appears to have chosen well.
Freezer Cash, the filly selected by Russo, has won five of nine starts this year and earned $42,304. On Friday night she won her elimination race for Saturday’s $200,000 SBOA/Miss New Jersey by three-quarters of a length over favorite Savannah Sky in 1:52.4. The win time was a lifetime best for Freezer Cash.
"I was talking to Joe Thomson last fall at Harrsiburg and he is good friends with David Scharf, who I have trained some horses for," Russo said.
"He said he had some Jersey breds and asked me if I’d like to train two of them. None of them really jumped off the page at me on paper, so I just picked two. Right from the start when I trained [Freezer Cash] for the first time, she acted like she wanted to go."
Freezer Cash began this year with a seventh-place finish in an overnight race at the Meadowlands before winning four consecutive starts. She was third in a New Jersey Sires Stakes race a week prior to her Miss New Jersey elim.
"When she started racing for me, Yannick (driver Yannick Gingras) said she was sweating just warming up, so we thought she might be tying up (muscle cramps). We took blood on her afterward, and she was. Even in her next four starts that she won, she was tying up. Now we give her paddock time first thing in the morning for a couple hours and I train her one slow trip every day. That seems to keep it under control.
"She’s a very affectionate filly. If she doesn't have her head out the stall door, she's got it in Powerful Paul's stall (a gelding in Russo's barn). We turn the two of them out together every day and she really likes him. I cut down the wall between their stalls so they can see each other and they're friends.
”She doesn't wear a boot, and she's easy on herself, eats all her meals. The one thing that makes her very aggressive is if you try to put her in the regular stalls in the paddock at the Meadowlands, she goes nuts. You can't even put her in one, by the time you've turned her around, she's crazy. So we put her in the [high sided] wooden stalls in the paddock and she's fine – I mean she does not move."
A win in the Miss New Jersey would be the biggest win in Russo’s career. He trained Prospector Hanover, who was eighth in the 2000 Woodrow Wilson, and Justalittlespice, who was third in the 2000 Classic Oaks.
It won’t be easy, though. In addition to Savannah Sky, the entry of Copywriter and Ideal News looms large in the final. Brittany Farms owns Copywriter, who won her Miss New Jersey elim by a half-length over Ideal News, co-owned by Brittany Farms, in 1:52.2. Copywriter’s victory snapped a five-race win streak by Ideal News, whose wins this year include the Blossom Series final.
"Ideal News so far is much improved from two to three," trainer Joe Holloway said. "If that improvement continues, she could be in great shape. She tries a lot. Last year, she just didn’t really have the hang of it. Right now, she’s done everything we’ve asked of her, and more. We’ll find out how good she is in the next few weeks, but right now, I’d say the chances for her in this division look pretty good."
The following is the field in alphabetical order for Saturday's $200,000 SBOA/Miss New Jersey at the Meadowlands Racetrack:
Horse
Copywriter, Freezer Cash, Ideal News, Make Me Money, Righteous Renee, Savannah Sky, Secret Deal, Tarport Erin, Unspoken and Vegas Style.
(HRC)
