Pinehurst Lady is the star of Barn 3 at the Pinehurst Harness Track, and she has an understudy; a 3-year-old named Bonnie Linn.
Pinehurst Lady won her first start here at the Matinee Races two years ago, and has since earned $285,000 for her local owners, Amy and Linwood Higgins of Pinewild.
“She’s been pretty good on the half-mile tracks,” said Mallar, explaining that the tighter turns on the smaller tracks are difficult for some horses. “She finished second by half a length at Yonkers to Bunny Lake, the top 3-year-old filly in the country.”
Pinehurst Lady is here being prepped for another racing season, as more wins will only enhance her future in the breeding shed.
Bonnie Linn won the Maryland Sire Stakes, taking both qualifiers and the final last July at the Rosecroft (Md.) track. The young pacer also claimed the Dover Matron Stakes, a $200,000 race for 2-year-old fillies. Co-owner Stanley Kaufman bred the filly out of his own mare. She was started here by Buck and Scott Norris, and Mallar took over the reins when they sent him four prospects to finish off.
“She’s kind of a freak in a way because she was the first foal from Stanley’s Abercrombie mare, bred to a sire that hadn’t thrown anything,” Mallar said. “I have no idea how he picked that stallion, Bonnie and Clyde.”
Bonnie Linn stopped the clock in 1:54.2 to win the Dover Matron Stakes, and owners Kauffman and Jake Hartline are expecting another winning season from her.
Mallar’s niche is training the babies. “It’s always more of a gamble with the babies,” he said. “At the sales, I look for horses in the $20,000 to $50,000 range, if I like the pedigree and conformation, and I think I can buy them in that price range, I’ll take that gamble.”
Mallar’s string of 17 will summer at Pocono Downs, Penn., where he can ship to the major tracks and return home the same night. He owns “a piece of” several of the horses in his barn, but the spotlight is on his fillies this coming year.
