Miller has Strong Pair in Cardinal Final (06/05/10)

Posted Saturday, June 5, 2010

                                                          By Mike Paradise 
   
  The first major stepping stone for 3-year-old state bred pacers towards Super Night is on tap Saturday night when Balmoral Park hosts the $56,000 Cardinal Final. The always potent Erv Miller Stable sends out the powerful one-two punch of last year’s Orange and Blue champion Power Of A Moment and that stake’s runner-up Iam Bonsera in a late eleventh race feature.

  As they did last Super Night the two stalwart Miller trainees well race uncoupled in the Cardinal Championships. Both come off impressive elimination victories, as does Jesse De Long’s homebred Delco Willobee, and these three fast youngsters figure to land a good portion of the money wagered on the added money event.
 
  Power Of A Moment is the luke-warm 3-1 mornijng line favorite. Iam Bonsera, who will be catch-driven by Dave Magee, is programmed at 7-2 and Delco Willobee (John de Long) at 4-1.

  We talked about the fast rising Illinois bred star Delco Willobee in Friday’s column. Today we’ll center on the Miller stable’s dynamic duo of the state-bred sophomore pacers.

  Both horses had been off since last fall following their freshman campaigns. Power Of A Moment ended his first season with 10 consecutive victories, a bevy of stake championships, earnings of over $291,000 and 2009 Illinois Horse of the Year Honors for Illinois owners the Erv Miller Stable, L. Mathias and B Hochsprung.

  Power Of A Moment started his second season, as expected, with a victory, a 1:51.1 clocking while racing first over with his regular driver Marcus Miller who was all smiles after yet another big effort for the son of Cole Muffler.

   “I don’t think I can be any happier with his performance. He was awesome,” said Marcus. “It was as easy as it looked. I don’t like to leave with too often because he’s smart enough as what to do out there. When I left with him a couple of times in a row last year he then wanted to get aggressive so I like to back off with him at times, depending on the situation.
 
  “In his elimination I was looking for a spot to drop in and then race him first up. He raced great but those two qualifiers at Springfield were probably better than the lines might indicate. He was well in hand in both of those qualifiers. I expected a strong mile from him in his elimination and he delivered again.

 “Power Of A Moment doesn’t usually blow a field away, he just gets it done and again once he saw the wire you can just see and feel him dig in with everything he had.”

  Iam Bonsera almost quietly put $99,958 into his purse account for owners John Carver, Mystical Marker Farms and Jack and Peggy Hood. Another son of Cole Muffler, Iam Bonsera won 5 of 9 starts, including the $65,000 Elevation title at Indiana Downs, but went off stride in both the Springfield and Du Quoin championships

  “Iam Bonsera raced in the shadow of Power of A Moment last year but there’s no doubt he’s a very good horse, too,” said Marcus after steering the pacer to his 1:51 elimination win highlighted by a :25.4 last quarter. “How good is Iam Bonsera? I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see. 

  “The horse has matured a lot over the winter though, maybe not as much physically as mentally,” continued Marcus. “He’s not as silly as he was last year as a 2-year-old when he did make breaks here and there. Now he knows what he’s doing out there a little better and I don’t think he knows yet just how fast he is. He’s still green but he has a huge motor. He paced a very fast last quarter and he was pretty well in hand doing it.”

  Iam Bonsera and Power Of A Moment will start alongside each other in the championship with posts six and seven respectively. Delco Willobee drew well with the three.

  The first two slots in the eleventh race feature belong to Finance The Master (12-1, Casey Leonard and Fox Valley Escort (5-1, Dale Hiteman). Fox Valley Barbosa (10-1, Brian Carpenter) and Burnthemidnightoil (12-1, Mike Rogers) have the four and five, while Voomerang (6-1, Mike Oosting), Indescribable (8-1, Dean Magee) and Southern Sport (12-1, Todd Warren) landed the eight, nine and ten, in that order.

    To view Archived Notes and Quotes click here. 

                                                                                        Balmoral Park Photo

              Iam Bonsera showed he means business with a strong elimination victory.