"He’s been through about three different groups of horses, guys that retired or went to stud, and he’s still around and kicking butt against some four-year-olds.”
With more than $10 million in combined earnings, iron horses Foiled Again and Market Share will look add to those impressive bankrolls this Saturday in their respective American National Finals at Balmoral Park.
Foiled Again, the sport's richest pacer of all time, will be reunited with regular pilot Yannick Gingras again as they look for another American National title in Saturday's $177,000 Aged Pace.
There’s never quite been a horse like Foiled Again. This ageless wonder returns and battles and keeps on truckin’ like no Standardbred ever has…and probably never will again.
He’s the richest pacer in history with more than $6.6 million to his credit and stats of 82-54-32 in 219 career starts. He has won some of harness racing biggest events, including the $500,000 Breeders Crown Open Pace, at Mohegan Sun Pocono Downs on Oct. 19, 2013 in 1:49.2 over a sloppy track.
He also has won the American National, capturing the 2011 edition in 1:51.4, and will be looking for a repeat triumph from post six in Saturday's 12th race, the $179,000 American National Aged Pace.
Foiled Again’s career didn’t begin fashionably. Born on May 8, 2004 at Englishtown, N.J., the chocolate bay gelding was bred by Barbara Matthews of Aiken, S.C., and was purchased for $20,000 as a yearling at the 2005 Standardbred Horse Sale at Harrisburg by Patrick Lacey of Yonkers, NY.
He earned just $59,540 as a two- and three-year-old in 2006 and 2007 and never raced for a purse of over $31,000 during those seasons. He also lost his final 17 starts as a sophomore. In fact, Foiled Again did not race in any event with a purse of $100,000 or higher until his 50th career start!
But the Burkes saw something they liked in the son of Dragon Again-In A Safe Place-Artsplace so they bought him from Lacey for $62,500 in early July 2008. He went on to earn $337,139 that season putting up a four-year-old record of 1:49.3f at Harrah's Chester.
Since those early days with Team Burke, Foiled Again has been named Dan Patch Older Pacer of the Year on three consecutive occasions. The amount of money he’s earned since turning seven years of age -- some $4.31 million -- is enough on its own to make him North America’s richest pacer ever. As it stands, he’s tied with the famous retired Italian trotter Varenne as one of only two horses in harness racing history to post three consecutive million dollar winning seasons (2011, 2012, 2013).
“If people don’t rate him, if not the greatest, as one of the greatest in history, I don’t know what else he has to do,” said Yannick Gingras, the gelding’s regular driver. “He gives me chills, I can tell you that. It seems like every year he figures out a way to rewrite the record books.”
Owned by Burke Racing, Weaver Bruscemi and JJK Stables and trained by Ron Burke, Foiled Again, now 10 years old, paced the fastest mile of his career, when he was race-timed in 1:47.1 while finishing third to Sweet Lou in a world-record 1:47 mile in the Ben Franklin Pace at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs this past June. He’s also won the following races twice: The Kane at Batavia, the Levy at Yonkers, the Molson Pace at Western Fair and Northfield Park’s Battle of Lake Erie.
“I can’t say enough about him and what he’s done for our family and for our whole stable.” said his trainer and co-owner Ronnie Burke. “He’s been unbelievable.”
On Sept. 15, he captured the eighth annual $220,000 Bobby Quillen Memorial at Harrington Raceway for an unprecedented third time in 1:50.2, the best winning time of his 10-year-old season.
In 2013, Foiled Again earned more than $1.4 million, taking his lifetime best mark of 1:48 in a June race at Pocono Downs. He won 11 races last season in 29 starts, with six seconds and seven third. In 2012, Foiled Again earned $1.2 million, becoming at age eight, the oldest pacer to have a million-dollar year. He also was named the sport’s best older male pacer for the second consecutive year by the U.S. Harness Writers Association. In 2011, at the age of seven, Foiled Again was voted Pacer of the Year by USHWA, and was the first pacer older than age four to ever receive the honour.
Gingras has sat behind Foiled Again in the majority of his starts since the pacer joined the Burke Stable.
“I want him to get the recognition he deserves,” Gingras said. “A lot of people think he’s a small-track horse, and at the end of the day he’s not the fastest horse but he outlasts every one of them."
Market Share and Tim Tetrick will look to defend their title of American National champions when they team up again in Saturday's $163,300 Aged Trot.
Market Share -- the 2013 Hambletonian winner and victor in the $235,000 American National for three-year-old colt and gelding trotters -- returns to Balmoral Park to defend his crown in the $166,300 American National Aged Trot.
Two years ago, The son of Revenue S-Classical Flirt-Yankee Glide was clocked in 1:53.3 with driver Tim Tetrick at the lines for the Linda Toscano-trained, then-sophomore. Owned by Richard S. Gutnick of Pennsylvania, TLP Stable and J Augustine of New Jersey, Market Share will leave from post five in the field of eight trotters.
"Never, never in a million years did we dream that Market Share could be this kind of horse,” Toscano offered. “He's just one of those horses that enjoys his work and tries real hard. It's surprising, but that's a good thing.”
Bred by Hayley Moore of Paris, KY, Market Share, a $16,000 yearling purchase from the 2010 Lexington Selected Sale, who won all five of his two-year-old starts over Freehold Raceway’s half-mile oval. Toscano and principal owner Richard Gutnick were uncertain if he could excel at the bigger tracks, such as the Meadowlands. So it was up to Market Share to show them.
In 2012, at age three, Market Share won the $1.5 million Hambletonian at the Meadowlands and the $1 million Canadian Trotting Classic at Mohawk en route to earnings of $2 million. He also trotted the fastest mile in the history of Maywood Park when he captured the $108,000 Galt in 1:54.4, erasing Green Day’s previous track record of 1:55.1, set in 2007. As a result, he was named the Dan Patch Award winner for best three-year-old male trotter.
Last season, his wins included the Breeders Crown Open Trot, Maple Leaf Trot, TVG Free For All Series Championship and American-National Stakes. He led all older trotters with $1.08 million in purses and received the Dan Patch Award for best older male trotter.
"It's a treat to be able to bring one back like that as a five-year-old,” Toscano said. "By bringing back the older horses, people recognize the names and the horses become the stars again. I think that's what is missing in our industry. I think it's a real good thing.”
This year Market Share has added another $362,256 to his bank account, pushing his career earnings to $3.4 million via a Maple Leaf Trot elim at Mohawk, the $250,000 Maxie Lee at Harrah’s Chester—when he set a new world record and career best clocking of 1:50.2 for an aged trotter on a five-eighths mile oval—and a victory in a $40,000 Cutler elimination in 1:50.3.
Driven by Tim Tetrick, Market Share surpassed the previous world mark of 1:50.3 that was co-held by Uncle Peter and Sevruga, both set in 2013 when he scored that record clocking in the Maxie Lee.
Market Share now has 24 wins, seven seconds and 12 thirds in 53 career starts. On Oct. 5, he was race-timed in 1:52, finishing fifth by three lengths in the $173,000 Allerage Trot at Lexington’s Red Mile.
Saturday's card also features American Nationals for three-year-old trotting colts, three-year-old trotting fillies, three-year-old pacing fillies and three-year-old pacing colts.
To view the full set of entries for Saturday's stakes-packed card, click the following link: Saturday Entries - Balmoral Park.
(with files from Balmoral)