Eleven of harness racing’s hardest hitters travelled to Harrington Raceway on Monday to spar in a set of eliminations for the Bobby Quillen Memorial, and it turned out to be a banner day at the office for Team Burke.
The ‘Burke Brigade’ watched Foiled Again and stablemate Clear Vision capture their respective $20,000 eliminations, and both of them toured the oval in sub-1:50 fashion.
Foiled Again marched to immediate command from Post 5 for Yannick Gingras in the first elim, and successfully sliced out splits of :27.2 :55.3 and 1:23.1 before using a :26.3 kicker to freeze the teletimer in 1:49.4. Sapphire City, Mcerlean, Dynamic Youth and Atochia also grabbed cheques in the record-setting performance. Foiled Again shaved two-fifths of a second off his own track record for older pacing geldings.
Ron Burke trains the nine-year-old son of Dragon Again-In A Safe Place for Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC and JJK Stables LLC. It was his sixth win of the season and the 71st lifetime tally for the career winner of $5,312,460.
Clear Vision one-upped Foiled Again when he toured the oval in 1:49.2 for driver Brett Miller in the second elimination. Miller watched Michaels Power roar to the lead from Post 6 and after supplying first-half fractions of :26.3 and :55.1 he was confronted by the first-over Clear Vision. The recent Canadian Pacing Derby runner-up took over command at the three-quarter pole in 1:22.1 and used a :27.1 closing panel to seal the deal. The performance took two-fifths of a second off Foiled Again's track record, and it matched Lucky Man's world record for an older pacing gelding on a half-mile oval.
Heston Blue Chip was a distant second, with Escape The News, Mel Mara, Michaels Power and Malak Uswaad N finishing in that order.
Ron Burke trains the seven-year-old son of Western Hanover-Artistic Vision for Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Panhellenic Stb Corp and James Koran. It was just the third win of the season for the pacer, who is now a 22-time winner to date. He’s stashed away more than $1.5 million in lifetime earnings.
The top four finishers from each elimination will return to compete in the $223,500 final on Monday, September 16.