The ‘ladies’ met last week during one of Maywood Park’s signature events, the Filly Maywood Pace. On Friday night (June 19) their male counterparts will step into the spotlight during the $36,000 Maywood Pace.
A field of eight Illinois-conceived and foaled three-year-old pacing colts will slug it out in the Maywood Pace, which has been carded as Race 8 on the 12-dash program.
Earndawg has been the ‘top dog’ in the division in each of his first two seasons of racing, and the Roger Welch trainee has been installed as the 9-5 morning line favourite. He will be gunning for his 11th win in what will be his 23rd career start.
The gelded son of Sportsmaster received a bye into the race and elected to use a conditioned event at Balmoral as his tune-up for the Friday showdown. Unfortunately, he encountered some traffic issues that night and never had a chance to be a factor. In his previous start against this type of company, last year’s Orange & Blue Stake winner looked like a winner in the Cardinal Stake at Balmoral as he unleashed a huge rally, but wound up getting nipped at the wire by Dinky Dune who had slipped through along the pylons late in the mile. Todd Warren will handle the driving duties behind Earndawg, who will be looking to add to a career record of 10-5-3 $230,325 when he starts from Post 2.
Lucpark captured last week’s elimination in wire-to-wire fashion and the Ervin Miller trainee figures to garner plenty of attention once again despite drawing Post 7 for Friday’s encounter.
The gelded son of Sportsmaster looked much the best in last week’s action, cruising through easy early splits before storming home with a two and a half-length verdict in 1:55.1. A model of consistency this year, Lucpark comes into this race with a record of 2-2-1 after six starts for owner Rocco Ruffolo. A six-time career winner who sports nearly $90,000 in earnings, Lucpark is the 3-1 second choice on the morning line. He will have leading driver Mike Oosting in the bike when they start from Post 7 on Friday.
Rounding out the field are Dixies Boy, Gifted By Nature, Rockin Cassinova, Dupages Z Tam, Getter Done Dune and Frosty Dune.
(With files from Maywood)