from the Maywood Park Publicity Department

Melrose Park, IL — Home Bed Advantage — last year’s darling of the ICF freshman pacing ranks — has had to battle back from a life-threatening condition to earn his shot in tonight’s (October 12) $220,000 Windy City Pace for 3-year-olds at Maywood Park.

Balmoral Park photo

Home Bed Advantage has overcome a bout with colitis to compete in the Windy City Pace.

“He had colitis,” trainer and co-owner Dave McCaffrey explained. “It’s a tricky condition because it can kill a horse. Also, one of the results can be founder and that happens about half the time. First you have to get the horse to beat the condition, then you have to sweat out whether he’s going to founder or not.

“When you put a horse in a trailer in the middle of the night and he’s skin and bones, and the vet tells you it’s 50-50 that you’ll ever see him alive again, that stings you. Thankfully, the horse came through it all.

“To see him come back the last two months like he has, put on 200 pounds, is very heartwarming. He’s never looked better than right now. He’s sound and right now he’s absolutely 100 percent healthy. It’s a big thrill for us to have him ready for the Windy City.”

Home Bed Advantage finished second by 1-1/4 lengths, a tick behind Glass Pack‘s 1:50.2 world record performance, last Friday in prepping for the Windy City Pace.

“That was a big effort from him,” driver Ryan Anderson said. “He had been off a long time (three months) and even though he had two nice qualifiers, the last in 1:53.4, it was a long time in between starts. I was real happy the way he raced. He handles these turns very well. McCaffrey trains him here, so that’s an advantage.”

The discovery of the horse’s condition came after the sophomore gelding had made eight performances that paled in comparison to his freshman campaign.

A winner of $247,775 at 2 en route to being named the 2006 ICF Freshman Pacer of the Year, the altered son of Cole Muffler captured eight of nine starts in 2006, recording a world record mark of 1:50.1 at Balmoral Park. This year, he’s looking for his first season’s win.

Purchased by McCaffrey for the MJGB Racing Stable of New York for $40,000 at the 2005 Cottonwood Sale, Home Bed Advantage won last year’s $285,000 Orange & Blue Colt Final — Illinois’ biggest test for freshman state-bred pacers.

“We went out to Cottonwood to see the yearlings in the field, studying conformation and athleticism, as well as the breeding,” McCaffrey noted. “What attracted me initially was the cross — Cole Muffler out of a Sportsmaster mare — which has seemed to do well. The horse looked good in the field and had a nice way about him.”

McCaffrey sent the youngster to trainer Rick Schrock in Springfield to break. He was a difficult colt to work with and was gelded as a result. He came back to McCaffrey’s Maywood-based barn in December of 2005.

“He really started coming on in his training in May 2006,” McCaffrey recalled.

The gelding’s first pari-mutuel test came on July 30, 2006 at Balmoral. After leisurely leaving the gate for Anderson, he took command of the race just past the first quarter and easily cruised to a 1:54.3 victory, pacing a tireless last quarter in :27.2.

“I had been giving these great reports to the owner, even though I’m usually conservative about 2-year-olds,” McCaffrey said. “But I was really thinking about Super Night on September 16 and it seemed like an eternity away.”

In his second career start, this time over Springfield’s mile oval in mid-August, Home Bed Advantage won in 1:52.2, posting a :26.2 final brush. In the $40,000 Governor’s Cup at Du Quoin, Home Bed Advantage went wire-to-wire in 1:52.1.

In his Orange & Blue elimination he had to work to get the lead away from Glass Pack just after the half, and cruised home in 1:50.2 (a new world record).

“I was very concerned going into the Orange & Blue final with the eight hole with the three main rivals all drawing inside of us,” McCaffrey said. “The bottom line is that we got a great trip.”

In the Orange & Blue Final Anderson opted to sit back with Home Bed Advantage, letting the others battle it out to fractions of :26.2, :54.1 and 1:22.4. He pulled the gelding third-over at the half-mile marker where he unleashed a powerful kick and won in 1:51 by 4-1/2 lengths.

Home Bed Advantage rattled off victories in Maywood’s Cardinal elim and final and Balmoral’s Sarah Myers in 1:50.2. His final season’s start came when he was second to The Quiet Mon in the $135,000 American-National last November.

He was given nearly five months rest before returning to the races at The Meadowlands on April 28. With Pat Lachance in the sulky, Home Bed Advantage finished third in his Berry’s Creek elimination and fourth in the $225,000 final. He was third in a Yonkers overnight, then third in both his elim and the $1 million Rooney at Yonkers on June 2. He shipped back to Chicago for the $100,000 Maywood Pace a week later, finishing second, then ventured to Northfield Park for an $87,600 Cleveland Classic division and took third.

On July 7, he finished a disappointing seventh in his Meadowlands Pace elimination, and McCaffrey realized the horse wasn’t right, and took him to a horse clinic for much-needed medical attention.