The filly Marvelous Mystery (Curt Grummel) is shown going past last year’s freshman colt titleholder Goomster (Travis Seekman). The pair of ICF champs will tangle again Friday at Springfield. (Patsy Fryman Photography)

By Mike Paradise for the IHHA

You wouldn’t expect a two-year-old state-bred champion trotting filly to start her sophomore season taking on colts and geldings and some much older, however that’s what Marvelous Mystery has been up against.

Nevertheless, the gifted filly will carry a two-race winning streak into Friday’s feature at Springfield.

After somewhat surprisingly overtaking the ICF freshman colt trotting champion Goomster (pp 3, Travis Seekman) in the late going a week ago, Marvelous Mystery will try to do so again and this time the awaiting field is even more loaded.

Back after a three-week rest is the Steve Searle trained Loussdob (pp 5, Casey Leonard), the 2022 Illinois bred male three-year-old trotting titleholder and coming in from Kentucky is the Erv Miller stable’s Bluebird Deacon (pp 6, Cordarius Stewart), a six-year-old who had been holding his own while competing in $35,000 Opens at Oak Grove.

Another six-year-old Oak Grove invader is Swan of Dreams (pp 7, Matt Krueger), an Open II competitor from the barn of trainer David Brooks.

Then there’s Reign And Shine (pp 1, Jamaica Patton), who beat Lousdobb and others last month at Springfield and she sheds last week’s eight-hole for today’s one-post.

Some Kinda Knight (pp 4, Chad Svendsen) who started the year on the east coast, and Justa Nother Bag (pp 8, Wyatt Avenatti) round out the thirteenth race feature.

“That’s a strong field racing for a $7,500 purse,” quipped Curt.”

And he’s right. That’s not a lot of money on the line for such a nice field of trotters but as they say: “It is what it is.”

Last week Marvelous Mystery was given a perfect pocket trip by Curt and boy, did his filly respond when called on.

“Even with the two-hole trip I didn’t think we were going to pass Goomster but my filly is very sharp now and she proved me wrong. I told my dad each week she just gets better and better.”

Curt, his brother Craig, and their father Leo own the winner of 10 of 12 races as a two-year-old with earnings of almost $130,000.

Following a nine-month layoff, Marvelous Mystery began her second season finishing third behind Goomster and Lousdobb in her three-year-old debut, a tune-up for the Violet stake that followed a week later.

Unexpectedly Marvelous Mystery went off stride in the ICF filly stake, dropping more than 20 lengths behind, and somehow, she made up about 17 lengths to get the third-place check.

“That was my fault, not the filly’s,” said Curt. “I didn’t have her rigged up quite right.”

However, the daughter of Lou’s Legacy rebounded in a big way, winning on June 30th in 1:56.1 and seven days later motoring to a career fastest 1:55 flat victory.

All the same, if there was wagering on the race, unfortunately there isn’t, the post time favoritism would likely go to Bluebird Deacon, owned by Erv Miller’s daughter Hannah Miller Bender.

Each of Bluebird Deacon’s 2023 starts have come at the recently concluded Oak Grove meet in Kentucky. In five outings he’s made just under $20,000.

The Swan For All gelding has banked over $250,000 in a little more than four racing seasons with $62,500 of that amount coming with his second place finish in Hoosier Park’s $270,000 Indiana Sire Stakes Super Final at the end of 2020.

Bluebird Deacon (pp 6) was acquired by Hannah in mid-October of 2021 and went to Oak Grove where he captured a $21,000 Open not long after.

Bluebird Deacon didn’t make his first start of 2022 until late May at Pocono Downs. A few races later he won a conditioned race at the Pennsylvania racetrack with Hanna’s older brother Marcus Miller at his lines.

After stops in New York at Yonkers and Saratoga, the trotter had a second and a third-place finish in high conditioned trots at Hawthorne before ending his season mostly competing in Opens at Hoosier where he did annex an Open 3 contest.