DOUG HARKNESS
The Guardian

One has to hand it to Charlottetown-based Jeff Lilley for sheer determination.
Lilley, who’s been around the horses for some three decades,  won the final stakes race of the 2009 Maritime harness racing  scene last Sunday at Truro Raceway with a wire-to-wire 2:03.4 victory behind Bettim Laura in the $12,600 Nova Scotia Stake for two-year-old pacing fillies.
The clocking was a new mark for the daughter of Western Paradise out of the stakes-winning mare Bettim Amanda, who was also campaigned by Lilley for owner Danny K. Purcell of Hantsport, N.S.
After travelling the stakes trail all summer with Bettim Laura, Lilley had been knocking on the door, picking up money and points in the Atlantic Sires Stakes, but the filly was still winless after the stakes season.
Jeff brought Bettim Laura to Truro Raceway for an overnight event on Nov. 2 where she took a maiden mark.
Bettim Laura got a chance to race in the $13,000 Island Breeders champion series at Charlottetown on Nov. 8, but failed to pick up any money.
But still on the calendar was the Nova Scotia Stake event at Truro. The race was open to fillies who were Nova Scotia foals and only six showed up to race.
Meridian Magic, the triple crown two-year-old winner, wasn’t eligible because she was foaled at Louis McIsaac’s farm at Cornwall.
Lilley got Bettim Laura to the front when the wings folded and was never headed in the mile, holding off Robert Laffin with  Emily Putnam by a nose with Pictonian Pasha getting the show money for Richy Baryluk of Sydney.
Nova Scotia native Lilley is a fan of the Nova Scotia series and believes it will help to keep Nova Scotia breeders in the sport.
The $6,000 share of the purse   money put Laura’s freshman earnings in the $15,000 range.

Doug Harkness, founder and editor of Atlantic Post Calls, can be reached at 902-667-3469 or dharkness@amherstdaily.com