The talented filly Terrific Temper will look to become the first maiden to win the Grade 1 Ed Burke Million Futurity since Ross & David Hinkins’s First Down Illusion since 2010. First Down Illusion won the race at 29-1 odds to make the son of First Down Dash one of the biggest longshot winners in the history of the Ed Burke.
Owned and bred by Parsons Family Limited Partnership, Terrific Temper will eye a repeat of the 2010 running, but the well-bred filly may not be as big a longshot at First Down Illusion after posting the second fastest qualifying time to the Ed Burke final, only behind the outstanding fastest qualifier Chance To Excel. Ridden in the trials by Eduardo Nicasio for trainer Chris O’Dell, Terrific Temper finished strongly in the aforementioned trial, moving up from third to second place while covering the distance in :17.590. Terrific Temper has certainly had her ups and downs, even before the trials. The first time that she was entered to run she had to be scratched after getting loose and taking off running behind the starting gate. O’Dell entered her back to race a few weeks later, but she was scratched out of the race once again.
“After she got loose, we entered her again and she got sick,” said O’Dell. “I ran her just two weeks ago (a second-place finish on May 24) so she had to bounce back pretty fast for this race. We know that she is fast. We have always known that. Her sister was fast. If they focus, they are fast. Tonight, she had a good clean shot and ran a super nice race. The Parsons are going to be so happy. They will be walking on air. It’s nice to raise one, see it qualify to a million-dollar race and with one of the fastest times. There is a lot of upswing with Terrific Temper. There’s a lot of upswing to that Chance To Excel too. We may be running for second place money if he comes back and runs another race like he did tonight.”
Terrific Temper’s dam is the outstanding broodmare Terrific Energy, who has produced the likes of 2019 Grade 1 Charger Bar Handicap winner Thermonuclear Energy, Grade 3 La Primera Del Ano Derby winner Terrific First Down and Grade 1 futurity finalists Geothermal, Terra Fire and Tea Pod. Geothermal ran third in last year’s Ed Burke Million final.