Customize is much the best in Mr Magoo
May 12, 2004,by Tom Kelley, publicity director, Balmoral Park
Crete, IL — The first major confrontation among the sophomore colt trotting set in 2004 took place on Tuesday night at Balmoral Park as a field of nine diagonally gaited state-breds squared off in the $10,000 Mr Magoo Stake.
Chrissy Koeppen Photo
Customize and driver Dave Magee proved to be much the best in Tuesday night’s $10,000 Mr Magoo Stake at Balmoral Park.
Taking advantage of the fact that he already had a start under his belt, Bart Cavanagh, Sr.’s Customize had no trouble overcoming post position nine as he sprinted away from his rivals in the stretch to win by two and one half lengths in 1:581.
Given a typically perfect drive by Hall of Famer Dave Magee, the altered son of Wilson Wyoming was hustled away from his outside starting spot but he was well within himself as he battled Beerthirty (Anthony Morgan) through an opening quarter of :284.
Clearing to the top just after the opening station, Magee was able to slow things down, giving Customize a second quarter breather of :302, while continuing to hold a length and a quarter advantage over Beerthirty. Last season’s two-year-old champion Kennans Max (Jason Dillander) was getting set to pull from the three hole as a hard charging Van Mo (George Conley) was cruising up on the outside into fourth as the field rolled by the half-mile mark in :591.
Last year’s top two trotters then hooked up in another hotly contested affair on the far turn with Customize holding inside position as Kennans Max made a determined bid to get to the leader on the outside. These two were less than a length apart as they passed the three-quarter mile mark in 1:282.
Heading through the lane Customize quickly put away the bid of his chief rival, trotting off to a three and one-half length advantage. The six month layoff began to show on Kennans Max, who was a tiring second at this point. Beerthirty was down at the pylons in third as Van Mo tried to gain ground from fourth.
But on this night Customize had no trouble living up to his odds-on billing, flashing under the wire with his second straight victory in 2004. Camptown (Mike Oosting) passed tiring rivals to get the place check while Kennans Max bravely held on for third.