Lady Shadow faced her stiffest test to date in the 2017 edition of the $365,000 Roses Are Red Stakes, but the champion mare handled the challenge like a true champion does: by fighting off all her foes to emerge victorious.

Driver Yannick Gingras had Lady Shadow forwardly placed from Post 4 while Wrangler Magic (Louis-Philippe Roy) and Call Me Queen Be (Scott Zeron) left strongest off the gate. Call Me Queen Be won that tussle with a brisk :25.3 opener with Wrangler Magic in the pocket followed by elim winners Nike Franco N (Tim Tetrick) and Lady Shadow.

Tetrick right-lined his mare from third to move to the front, and cleared before the :54 half. Nike Franco had to face immediate pressure from Lady Shadow, first up and advancing confidently. The third station was reached in 1:21.3 with Lady Shadow edging to a narrow lead that started to widen as the field hit the stretch. Wrangler Magic was on that mare’s back coming for home and tipped out for the stretch drive but couldn’t track her down as Lady Shadow hit the line in 1:48.4 for her third straight Roses Are Red title.

“At that point I thought I had everybody where I wanted them,” Gingras told Greg Blanchard about his confidence around the final turn. “I assumed the way I saw the backstretch that Louis-Philippe was going to be disqualified, I thought I had the field all stacked up behind me, I know I could have gone by Timmy earlier than that but I took it easy on my mare and let her do her thing in the stretch.”

Lady Shadow, a six-year-old daughter of Shadow Play-Lady Camella, has won 32 of 59 career races and earned more than $2.1 million. She is owned by David Kryway, Carl Atley, Ed Gold, and BFJ Stable, and trained by Ron Adams.

(Standardbred Canada)