from Meadowlands Media Relations

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – March 26, 2005 – Maltese Artist [$4.40, $2.60, $2.20] tipped off the cover of Town Champion [$3.20, $2.40] in the stretch and drew off for a three-quarter-length victory in the $122,000 Four Leaf Clover Final on Saturday night at the Meadowlands.

Lisa Photo

Maltese Artist (1) defeated Town Champion in the final of the Four Leaf Clover Series at the Meadowlands, pacing the mile in 1:49.3, a stakes record.

The four-year-old son of Artiscape paced the mile in 1:49.3, a stakes record and a second faster than the previous mark of 1:50.3 set by Sagebrush in 2004.

JK Royal Flush [$2.60] was third by a length and three-quarters in the fifth race feature.

Luck broke Maltese Artist’s way when Fox Valley Gallant broke stride, opening up a spot on the pylons behind Gallant’s entrymate, the pacesetter Town Champion. After a breather into the stretch, driver Ron Pierce pulled Maltese Artist off the rail. The pacer went on to pick up his third win with three seconds in seven starts this year. Lifetime, Maltese Artist has seven wins, 11 seconds and seven thirds in 38 starts.

Since owners George Leon of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; John Howard of Morgantown, West Virginia and James Koran of Macedonia, Ohio, acquired him for $146,000 last fall, Maltese Artist has banked $137,300.

“I was lucky the horse made a break [Fox Valley Gallant], and I got to get in and rest my horse,” said Pierce, who picked up his fifth Four Leaf Clover Final victory. “He’s a real nice horse and tough.”

“I thought he raced real good,” said Ron Burke, assistant to his father, Mickey. “We got lucky because the other half of the entry made a break. We were able to get into the two-hole. But he [Maltese Artist] was used twice in the race and still raced well.”

Maltese Artist will have some time off before a stakes at Dover Downs on April 18 and will spend the balance of the spring and summer at the Meadowlands, according to Burke.