by Mike Paradise, publicity director, Maywood Park

Melrose Park, IL — Global Village and Buy At The Market, second round series winners at Maywood Park earlier this month, are among the seven finalists for Friday night’s $12,000 Ideal Society state-bred showdown.

Global Village (Tony Morgan) opens as the 5-2 morning line favorite, while Buy At The Market will be in his familiar underdog role at 12-1 first flash odds.

Also earning their way into our third race event is Balmoral Park’s series champion Go Warrior Go (7-2, Dave Magee), as well as First Away (8-1, Ross Leonard), Joy Of The Sport (3-1, Tim Tetrick), Sonofasleaze (8-1, Andy Miller) and Famous Last Words (6-1, Pat Berry).

Global Village will try to get back on the winning track before he ships to New Jersey. He was upset in the January 17 Balmoral Park series final, the first time he’s been beaten with driver Tony Morgan at his lines. The younger brother of Illinois champion Constant Change has flourished during the winter, winning four of his last six starts for New Jersey owner Niss Allen Inc.

“This horse just seems to thrive on the cold weather,” says his trainer Ken Rucker. “We’ll race him in the final of the series and then he’ll head out to the Meadowlands for the (Senior) Trendsetter Series in February.”

“He seems to be tough at either Maywood or Balmoral,” said Morgan after the colts’ second round victory on the Chicago circuit’s half-mile oval. “He is pretty antsy, but all the energy trains to a strong performance on the track.”

Buy At The Market returns to the track where he rallied for a 1:55⁴ new lifetime mark in the series second leg on January 9. Lightly raced as a youngster, the now five-year-old gelding is looking for a little respect. He has been sent off at 5-1 odds or higher in each of his ten starts and often at double-digit odds since joining the Anthony Musillami Stable.

The gelding made up a lot of ground on the extreme outside of our stretch in his series triumph here and if he is to overtake another field, you can bet it will be along another outside path.

“As a two-year-old he went over the hub rail at Springfield,” explained Musillami. “He’s a pretty flighty horse and I think part of the reason that he tends to bear out the way he does at the end of a race is because he’s still very leery of being too close to a hub rail.

“We claimed this horse for $15,000 in mid-October,” continued the 25-year-old LaGrange, Illinois native in his third season as a conditioner. “He’s a big, good-looking horse who paced first up in a race that I also had a horse in, and I was impressed by his performance. He’s kind of a lazy horse but it seems like the harder I train him that the better he has become.”

“I drove him earlier in his career but he wasn’t as strong as he is now. He seems to feel a lot better and has a lot of ‘go’ to him,” said Tony Morgan after Buy At The Market’s first victory for Illinois owners Scott and Donald Musillami and James Gleitsman.

Go Warrior Go is making his 27th lifetime start, but only his fourth at Maywood Park. He was stuck inside in his fifth place second round series finish here, but came back with a lifetime best 1:54² (:26⁴) final quarter on January 17 at Balmoral for his Howe, Indiana owners Par II.

Joy Of The Sport gets a huge post shift Friday night and will likely use his inside speed when he leaves from the two slot for trainer Todd Hill. The Sportsmaster gelding does own a victory over Friday night’s favorite Global Village, beating him on December 17 at Balmoral with a 1:55² clocking.