It only took a split second for Lord Of Andover and driver Dave Magee to seize an opportunity in the stretch and trot home the winners in the featured $24,000 Invitational Trot Wednesday, April 27. The duo will be back in action Wednesday, May 4 to take on the field once again
in the week’s top trot at Hoosier Park Racing & Casino.
Starting from Post 4 in the 10-horse lineup, Lord Of Andover slid right over to the rail at the start, landing in the third spot behind early race leader Azur and Verlin Yoder, who had reached the lead just past the quarter-mile marker in a time of :27.4. Azur was quickly overtaken by Gale Warning and Peter Wrenn before the halfway point in :58. All this time, Magee kept Lord Of Andover to the inside, patiently following along as an outer flow of horses began to form.
Coming around the final turn, Gale Warning still had control of the lead, but he was under heavy pressure from several rivals on the outside. Lord Of Andover was still buried in traffic along the inside and his odds of joining the outer fray were going down with every step. As the field brushed by the three-quarter mile marker in a time of 1:27.2, a small seam began to appear and Magee was in perfect position to bust through, getting Lord Of Andover into top speed and ready for the final strides. Lord Of Andover kicked into gear and took control of the race, winning by a margin of two lengths in a time of 1:57.2 over Powerful Speed and Josh Sutton, who closed well for second. Gilly Ho and Jason Dillander also closed quickly from the back to finish third.
“This has turned out to be a nice little horse for us,” said owner Brent Davis. “We bought him out of the Delaware Sale last year and he’s made right at $90,000 for us. He’s been racing well at The Meadows, so I figured we’d try him over here. Getting Dave Magee to drive was a big plus, too. He’s never driven for us before.”
Small in stature, Lord Of Andover earned his third trip to the winner’s circle this season with his Indiana debut. The five-year-old son of Andover Hall also eclipsed the $100,000 mark in earnings with his most recent victory for trainer Ed Rider.
Davis, who is based out of Zanesville, Ohio, has competed at tracks in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania with his father, Mac, and his mother, Linda, for the past three decades. In the past 20 years, he began to venture outside of his home state and has purchased several horses from New Zealand and Australia and imported them to the United States for racing. Davis was also instrumental in recommending several Australian horsemen to the Indiana circuit in the past decade, including driver Darren Hancock, who competed at Hoosier Park in 2010.
Davis has also bought into several partnerships “down under” and has experienced success on the Australian circuit. Although Davis has a mixture of pacers among the 15 currently in training, Davis is best known for his success with trotters. Lord Of Andover joins a long list of trotters that have piqued under the care of the Davis family.
Lord Of Andover will return for another shot at the title Wednesday, May 4. The $24,000 Invitational Trot is slated as the second on the program and includes Speed N The Tunnel, the tough trotting mare from the Brett Wilfong Stable that is three-for-three in the Invitational this year. She will take on the eight-horse field from Post 8, just beside Lord Of Andover, who will start from Post 7. Magee returns to drive Lord Of Andover while Speed N The Tunnel’s regular driver Sam Widger will be seated behind the nine-year-old mare.
(Hoosier Park)