ISOBA'S Attract Power Of A Moment (07/03/10)

Posted Saturday, July 3, 2010

                                                                      By Mike Paradise
  
  Illinois champion Power Of  Moment looks to start a new winning streak and continue his dominance in  the Illinois bred pacing ranks Saturday night in the second of twin $11,5000 ISOBA stakes for 3-year-old pacers.

  Last season’s Illinois Two-Year-Old Pacer of the Year failed to make last Saturday’s $1.5 million North America Cup Final with a fourth place finish in his elimination. And in the $97,000 Consolation a week ago got parked-out to a bruising 53.3 first half and ended up far back up the track in last place.

  It capped a frustrating couple of weeks for the horse’s driver Marcus Miller who was excited about his first trip to Canada but was left at the airport gate three weeks ago because of a passport snafu and when he did get his first opportunity last Saturday at Mohawk Marcus took a gamble that simply didn’t work out.

  Power Of A Moment had the nine-hole in the 10-horse Consolation on a track that was favoring speed.
  
  “The front end was good the whole night up there,” said Marcus. “I said to myself I’m here now and I want to give him a shot. I didn’t want to try and come from last. So I left with him but there were no holes and I couldn’t make it to the front, so we ended up hung out to some very fast fractions.”
 
  While the first visit to Canada was disappointing for both Marcus and Power Of A Moment, stable-mate Iam Bonsera did pick up a nice chunk of change ($11,640) in the same Consolation event, coming from ninth at the half to finish third, beaten only one and one-half lengths while timed in 1:49.1. His 25.4 last panel was the fastest in the field.

  Power Of A Moment will open up as the heavy 6-5 favorite in Saturday’s seventh race and he drew nicely with the four-slot in the eight horse field that includes Clay Gram (15-1, Tom Graham), Fox Valley Emelio (10-1, Todd Warren), RT Super Star (Mike Oosting), Indescribable (7-2, Dale Hiteman), Parker Place (20-1, Travis Seekman), Fox Valley Barbosa (8-1, Brian Carpenter) and JHS (5-1, Dave Magee).

  Marcus has put his Canadian experience behind him and is optimistic that Power Of A Moment’s big heart can propel him to resume his winning ways in Saturday’s ISOBA. The son of Cole Muffler had posted 12 consecutive victories prior to his Canadian excursion.

  “The horse’s biggest asset is that he tries hard all the time” said the 21-year-old driver. “Hopefully they didn’t beat him up too much in Canada and he’ll be ready for another big effort against the state-breds.”

  The first ISOBA stake division will go as race eight with recent Maywood Pace champion Southern Sport (5-2, Casey Leonard) and Voomerang (2-1, Mike Oosting) the programmed favorites with posts six and seven, respectively.

  They’ll be challenged by The Roman Conquest (8-1, Marcus Miller), Ucallthatanexcuse (12-1, John De Long), Apache Renegade (12-1, Robert Taylor), Fox Valley Escort (5-1, Dale Hiteman) and Nash Gram (8-1, Todd Warren).

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