Can They Beat The Champ? (06/19/10)

Posted Saturday, June 19, 2010

                                                              By Mike Paradise 
   
   Seven of the top aged state-bred pacers will play the circuit’s version of “Beat The Champ” Saturday evening at Balmoral Park. It’s the $30,000 Broadway Preview stake and the champ of course is the venerable Thisbigdogwilfight.

  As a seven-year-old Thisbigdogwilfight fought off the competition in each of his six starts in Illinois for trainer Jim Eaton. The horse’s lone season loss came in at Hoosier Park invite last month after he was told to leave town by the Balmoral racing office because he was too good for what that track was sending out against him.

  Of Thisbigsogwilfight’s six triumphs this year, four have been in the local Free For All Ranks, one in a mid-May ICF stake, and his first in a early April conditioned race when the veteran made his 2010 debut.

  Saturday’s ninth race feature has a lot more talent and depth than the first state-bred stake won in “The Dog’s” season best time of 1:51.1. Odds are the champ have to go faster to remain “King of the Hill” because he’s on the outside (post eight) looking in at the likes of The Quiet Mon (Rick Dane, Jr.), Special Joe (Del Chupp), Park Lane Deputy (Dale Hiteman), My Boy Luke (Bob Smolin), Well To Do Guru (Casey Leonard), Omaha Survivor (Todd Warren) and Big Daddy Woo Woo (Mike Oosting).

  Unraced at two, the now four-year-old Big Daddy Woo Woo has gone from a county fair horse a year ago at the age of three to a quick 1:50.1 Free For All winner a week ago for trainer Nick Prather and his Missouri owner Carol Hennricks.

  Twenty-one-year-old John De Long has taken over the driving chores behind Thisbigdogwilfight this year and he’s a perfect five-for-five with the winner of over $793,000 lifetime for Illinois owners Redbud Stable (Frankfort) and Michael McNeely (Normal).

  And John is all smiles when you mention the horse’s name.
 
  “It’s been awesome getting the opportunity to drive a horse like him. He’s by far the bets horse I’ve ever been behind,” said the Wisconsin native grinning from ear to ear. “He’s fun to drive and he’s just a nice old class horse who knows what to do out there. When it’s race time he’s ready to rock.”

  After Thisbigwilfight’s latest Balmoral victory earlier this month, De Long had this to say: 

  “He always bears out a little coming out of the last turn but just as soon as he sees somebody he just digs. They could have gone around this track four times and I don’t think they would have ever got by him. “

  Canadian Clubbing: Power Of The Moment and Iam Bonsera, the 1-2 finishers Balmoral’s recent Cardinal stake, skipped the $100,000 Maywood Pace and instead trainer Erv Miller will give his 3-year-old state-bred pacing standouts a shot to go for more 10 times that amount.

  Both horses are racing Saturday night in eliminations for the $1.5 million North America Cup up in Canada at Mohawk. A third place finish or better in the three elimination races is needed to gain the lucrative final and take on the very best sophomores pacers in the United States and Canada.

  Marcus Miller and Dave Magee will be in Canada tonight handle their respective North America Cup drives—Marcus behind Power Of The Moment in the first elimination and Dave in the third at the lines of Iam Bonsera.

  The Miller dynamic duo isn’t the only sophomore Illinois breds competing at Mohawk Saturday. Makes his second start of the year in a Goodtimes stake elimination is the former Mike Brink trainee Rock Hollywood. The 2009 Springfield freshman trotting champion prepped for his elim with a winning 1:55.3 mile last week there. The son of Psychic Spirit is now conditioned by Norwegian Torgeir Hagmann.

                                             
  To view Archived Notes and Quotes click here.