by Tom Kelley, publicity director, Maywood Park

Melrose Park, IL — For the second straight week trotters took center stage on the Thursday night (Oct. 27) Maywood Park card as a field of seven 3-year-old colts and geldings slugged it out in the $14,200 Life’s A Holiday stake.

Taking advantage of his speed and an inside draw, Fox Valley Standardbreds and Jim Edgar’s Fox Valley Iliad grabbed command from the word ‘go’ and proceeded to make every call a winning one, reporting home with a 2-1/2 length victory in 1:57.4.

Maywood Park photo

Homer Hochstetler guided Fox Valley Iliad to a wire-to-wire victory in Thursday’s $14,200 Life’s A Holiday stake.

Handled by trainer Homer Hochstetler, the son of Vaporize-Memory Maker zipped away from post position three, managing to put a hard leaving Itzaziam (Marcus Miller) into the pocket as the two trotters cruised by an opening quarter in :29.3.

Under no pressure whatsoever through middle splits of :59.4 and 1:29.1, Fox Valley Iliad was in complete command of the proceedings. Heading around the final turn a fit and fresh Fox Valley Iliad continued to show the way with Itzaziam sitting right on his back.

Rapidly putting distance between themselves and the rest of the field, the issue was never in doubt from that point on as Fox Valley Iliad sealed the deal with a :28.3 final quarter to post his fourth win of the season. Itzaziam was a clear cut second while Itz Alive (Mike Oosting) finished third, 11-3/4 lengths behind the winner.

Sent off as the favorite by the betting public, Fox Valley Iliad returned $4.40, $2.80 and $2.20 while posting his sixth career victory and running his lifetime earnings up to $49,138.