Foiled Again, a winner of seven of his last 10 starts, has been installed as the 2-1 morning line favourite in the 24th annual $100,000 Battle of Lake Erie at Northfield Park Saturday, June 27.
Owned by the Pennsylvania partnership of Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Burke Racing and JJK Stables, Foiled Again drew the rail in the powerful field of eight veteran pacers.
The five-year-old gelding is trained by Ron Burke. Matt Kakaley, 21, will drive. Kakaley is attempting to become the youngest driver ever to reach 1,000 wins, and currently stands just 10 tallies short of that milestone.
Jeremys Successor is the second choice at 7-2 after drawing Post 2 for owner Andrea Ann Hill of California and trainer Dean Eckley. They will call on Tyler Buter to drive. Jeremys Successor defeated Foiled Again two weeks ago in a Preferred Pace at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.
The third choice, Blueridge Western, which won an $88,760 division of the Cleveland Classic at Northfield last year, will try to become just the fourth horse to win the 'Classic' and the 'Battle.' Posted at 4-1 early, Blueridge Western is owned by Francis Azur of Pennsylvania, trained by Kevin McDermott and driven by Tony Hall.
The $100,000 Battle of Lake Erie is scheduled as Race 12 on the 15-dash Northfield card.
First race post time is 7:00 p.m. (ET), with the Battle scheduled for 10:50 p.m.
The Battle of Lake Erie undercard features Ohio Sires Stakes for three-year-old colts and geldings, both trotters and pacers. Total purses for the evening are nearly $250,000.
(With files from Northfield)