First two-year-old qualifying winner at Olympia

Lake Worth, FL – The pacing filly Princess Royal can now lay claim to being the first two-year-old harness racing qualifying winner of the 2020 season in North America. She won the first of nine qualifying races Wednesday at Olympia of Palm Beach Training Center.

The Florida-bred daughter of Royel Millennium from the Real Artist mare, Check This, was driven by Ken Holliday for trainer Sergio Corona.

The first qualifier of the day started off with the two-year-old trotter, Ciao Bella (Odino Jet) shooting out to the early lead from the rail for driver/trainer Serigo Corona, but before the opening quarter mile, Ciao Bell went off-stride and eventually was pulled up and did not finish the race.

That allowed Princess Royal and Holliday to have things their own way, cutting easy fractions of :33, 1:09.2, 1:43.3, winning in 2:19.2.

Princess Royal is owned and was bred by Amante Standardbreds, Inc. of Delray Beach.

Driver Ken Holliday scored the fastest qualifiers on the day, winning both the 7th and 8th race pacing events in 1:57. He won the 7th race with Roll With Angel, trained by John Mungillo and the 8th race with Lt Col Je Leonard, who is trained by Richie Silverman.

A rare dead heat for win took place in the fifth race trot. Celebrity Bianca (Fern Paquet, Jr.) cut the mile with Lady Jeter (Dan Daley) sitting right on their back. Then in a great stretch drive, the two horses could not be separated at the wire. The time of the race was 2:00.3.

Lady Jeter is trained by Dan Daley while Celebrity Bianca is conditioned by Sam Stathis.

Tee Wine, age 24, made his driving debut in the third race trot with Puerto Rico and finished a game third place after a strong first-over move in the backstretch against race winner Guardino (Fern Paquet, Jr.) in 2:01.

By Steve Wolf, for Olympia of Palm Beach