by Mike Paradise, publicity director, Maywood Park

Melrose Park, IL — It’s round two of the heavyweight battle for bragging rights as the reigning queen of the Chicago circuit distaff division. On Wednesday night at Maywood Park, it’s a rematch between recent Open Pace champions Parklane Powerful and Cinder’s Best.

After convincing victories in her first four Chicago season starts, Cinder Best dropped round one in her first match against the 2003 Illinois Mare of the Year Parklane Powerful here two weeks ago. Handicapped with the eight hole in a six horse field, Cinder Best was out sprinted to the front end by the pride of the Fighting Major Stable (Hoffman Estates, Illinois), who handed the Seldon Ledford trainee a half length loss at the end of a 1:55 flat mile.

Wednesday night Cinder Best (6-5, Eric Ledford) gets the edge in posts with the five slot, while Parklane Powerful (9-5, Ron Marsh) has the outside six niche in the $16,500 Open Handicap Pace drawn by groups (one-four) and (five-six).

Parklane Powerful goes after her 29th win in 57 career starts in the ninth race feature, while a third place finish or higher by Cinder Best would put her over the $600,000 plateau in career earnings.

Providing the opposition is Cha Cha Ching (6-1, Tim Tetrick), another Ledford trained mare, as well as CJR Bogert (12-1, Pat Wolf), Kennan’s Mama (10-1, Del Chupp) and River Mel (10-1, Mike Oosting).

“Homer (trainer Hochstetler) really got Parklane Powerful in fine shape for this season,” said driver Ron Marsh after the March 17 win. “He prepped her with two good qualifiers and she’s really good and fresh right now. She prefers the bigger track and her big suit is coming from off the pace, but over here at Maywood that way of racing isn’t always the best, so we had to change strategy. I thought she would make the top pretty easily and she did. She left really well and then settled in nicely once she was on the lead. The fractions were very soft and she had plenty left.”