by Mike Paradise, publicity director, Maywood Park
Melrose Park, IL — If consistency ranks high on your list for handicapping horses, then Constant Change will be your choice in the tenth race, the second of a pair of $25,000 Associates Stakes on Friday night’s card at Maywood Park.
Constant Change, the 8-5 morning line choice in the co-feature, is fresh off a comfortable 1:56 flat victory a week ago with driver Dave Magee in an ICF Open Pace raced on a sloppy strip. And performing well at Maywood Park has always been a very common occurrence for this Tom Simmons-trained pacer.
A 23-time winner over the past two racing seasons, the six-year-old son of Cole Muffler has especially been successful on the Chicago circuit’s half-miler. The defending Maywood Pacing Series champion has chalked up nine of those victories here in his last 22 starts and he’s finished second five other times, including the 2003 Associates Stake.
Since his first racing season (2001), Constant Change has been in the exacta in 23 of 30 Maywood Park starts (a 77 percent clip), winning 13 races, including some past open company Free For Alls.
Back in July Constant Change took second in the Egyptian, the second leg of the state-bred pacing series. A month later he paced a career best 1:49.4 mile at the Springfield State Fair. He returned to Maywood Park in October, winning an ICF Open in 1:52.4 and finishing second two other times, before taking on several of the very best aged pacers in North America at Balmoral Park.
“We had given Constant Change a few weeks off to freshen up after those two hard American-National efforts and it has really agreed with him,” said Benita Simmons, who shares ownership of the horse with Hunt Harness Horse Inc. (Big Rock, Illinois) and Helen Logan (Coffeyville, Kansas). “The horse needed the time and his attitude is way better now. We’ve been pointing him for the Associates Stake.”
Constant Change will scoot out from post three in the tenth race with Battleshoe Boy (7-2, Tony Morgan) and Go Warrior Go (5-2, Ryan Anderson) inside of him, and My Buddy Bob (6-1, Pat Berry), He’s Awfully Good (8-1, Tim Tetrick) and Randolph Duke (15-1, Dale Hiteman), to his right.
The first $25,000 Associates Stake of the night, carded as the seventh race, is a wide-open event with early favoritism divided between number three Black Oliver (5-2, Tim Tetrick), number six Dashing Diplomat (3-1, Eric Ledford) and number five No Hassle (7-2, Ryan Anderson).
No Hassle was the upset winner in the Cook County Stake back in May, and a repeat winning performance in the Associates would give him 100 series points, crowning him the 2004 pacing series champion and earning a $20,000 bonus to his Belvidere, Illinois owners Joel Warner and John Fincke.
A second place finish by No Hassle would guarantee the five-year-old gelding at least a share of the series championship with Taser Gun, who is still sidelined with a hoof injury. Taser Gun won the second series leg Egyptian earlier and was second in the Cook County, good for 75 points. A win by Constant Change would also give him a share of the series title.
The seventh race first division stake is rounded out with Cold Sweat (10-1, Dale Hiteman), He’s The Real Deal (5-1, Dave Magee), Caps Classic (8-1, Tony Morgan) and Roy Olcott (12-1, Mike Oosting).
Caps Classic, from the powerful Ken Rucker Stable, is a half-mile track specialist. Three of his last four wins have come at Maywood Park. His other two season’s triumphs were recorded earlier at Freehold. Last year the gelding posted nine victories and only one came on a big track. He was a five-time winner on the New Jersey half-miler and a three-time victor on this track.
Dashing Diplomat was a 1:53.4 Maywood Park winner in our October 8 ICF Open Pace. Last year in his sophomore season, four of his five victories for Mc Henry, Illinois owners Penny and Michael Yates came on this track, including the Spring Championship.