by Mike Paradise, for the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association

Springfield, IL — Early on in the 3-year-old campaign of Park Lane Deputy, trainer Homer Hochstetler knew he might have something special and the favorite for Wednesday’s $50,000 Illinois State Fair Colt Stake Final at Springfield has proven his Illinois Hall of Fame conditioner was right on the money.

Park Lane Deputy comes off a sizzling 1:50 best mile in his State Fair sophomore pace elimination last Saturday, the colt’s tenth win in 15 starts that included Balmoral Park’s $56,700 Cardinal in early June.

The son of Sportsmaster out of the Grinfromeartoear broodmare Darling Katherine has earned $96,427 this year for owner Shirley Le Vin who paid only $9,500 for the colt two years ago at the Walker Standardbred Sale.

Balmoral Park photo

Park Lane Deputy, shown here winning a recent Hanover Stake, is favored to win Wednesday’s $50,000 Illinois State Fair Colt Stakes Championship for 3-year-old pacing colts at Springfield.

“Park Lane Deputy is a very nice horse,” said Hochstetler. “We raced him only twice as a 2-year-old. He won his second start (1:55.1) last July at Hawthorne but then we found a hairline fracture in a knee so we just stopped with him. We sent him to Kentucky and put him on the wheel there and then brought him back home.

“After he won his first season start I trained him, and it wasn’t on a very nice day,” continued Hochstetler. “I just kind of walked him down three-quarters and then let him sprint home and he did a :26 last quarter tied to a jog cart and I said to myself: ‘This is a good horse.’ At Balmoral it takes a real good horse to do a :26 flat without a tailwind.”

Park Lane Deputy went on to rattle off five consecutive wins at Balmoral, including his sweep of the Cardinal before a fourth place finish in a Maywood Pace elimination and placing third best in the $100,000 final, beaten one length.

“Even though he got around Maywood pretty well we drew outside posts and he had a tough time there,” said his driver, Dale Hiteman.

Park Lane Deputy bounced back with victories in July in the $12,000 Hothead and a $26,200 Hanover Stakes. He then endured a wide mile and finished fourth in the $50,000 Incredible Finale on August 1.

“In his last race at Balmoral he had the outside post and ended up with a terrible trip but that’s horse racing,” said Hiteman.

Park Lane Deputy again rebounded in his State Fair elimination, leaving from the six-slot and going on to post a front-end 1:50 clocking.

“Homer told me before the race that Park Lane Deputy was really good right now and that this was the best he felt all year. Homer was right-on. He said to get him up in the mix early and he would race good for me. And sure enough, he did. I got him up to the gate and he shot out and he was gone. He was on auto-pilot.”

Hiteman also drove Trophy Hunter to his 1:51 State Fair sophomore elimination victory.

“This was the first time I drove him and I didn’t know anything about him,” continued Hiteman. “He’s a real nervous horse who went a heck of a trip (that day). The horse has extreme speed if he can just learn to relax. He beat some nice colts in this elimination.”

Racing at the Springfield State Fair concludes Thursday afternoon with six more $50,000 ICF championship events.

Editor’s Notes: Mike Paradise writes a daily harness racing column for the IHHA at www.harnessillinois.com.