from Meadowlands Media Relations

He may have been winless last year, but Hez Striking will be gunning for his third win of 2006 in the $50,000 second round of the Su Mac Lad Series on Sunday afternoon at the Meadowlands.

The seven-year-old gelding is listed as the 5-2 morning line favorite in the field of 12 free for all trotters set to go postward in Sunday’s seventh race. Ron Pierce is listed to drive the Hez Striking, who is trained by Richard “Nifty” Norman. The three-week Su Mac Lad Series concludes with a $126,500 final on April 9. First race post is 1:10 p.m.

In last week’s opening leg of the series, Hez Striking drew off to a two and three-quarter-length victory in 1:55.2. It was his second win in three starts this season. Although he did not find the winner’s circle in 2005, the trotter still earned $232,472 while racing in the shadow of Mr Muscleman. A winner of more than $700,000 lifetime, Hez Striking had his best season in 2004 when he won 12 of 19 starts for owners Bart Glass of Stanford, Kentucky, and Robert Kauffman of New Albany, Ohio. In addition to being named Ohio’s Horse of the Year, he finished second in the Nat Ray that year to the Swedish trotter Revenue.

“He’s a lovely old horse and it’s great to get a couple of wins this early in the year because he had a bit of a drought last year,” Norman said. “But, he knows how to make money, and I think he’ll have a pretty good year.”

Norman, 45, has embarked on his first meet on his own after 15 years as the chief assistant to the Meadowlands’ all-time leading money-winning trainer, Brett Pelling, who retired and moved to Perth, Australia, in January.

“It’s working out okay,” he said. “It was a little bit of a shock at first, but it’s working out okay now. Not a lot has changed really because I’ve got the same crew. Day to day is pretty much the same. The biggest change for me is that I’m on the telephone dealing with the owners and doing the bills and keeping an eye on the money. I speak to [Brett] usually once a week.”

Norman will have horses in action in both hemispheres on Sunday. While Hez Striking races at the Meadowlands, Articulator will be racing Down Under. Norman shipped Cam’s Fool and Articulator to Tasmania for the Inter Dominion Series. The horses are in the care of driver-trainer Anthony Butt, who is best known for developing the outstanding dual-hemisphere trotting champion Lyell Creek.

“They’ve been a little disappointing,” Norman said. “They really didn’t get the preparation they deserved and neither one of them has made the [Inter Dominion] final. Articulator is going to race in the consolation on Sunday. They spent seven weeks in quarantine and then they basically had six weeks to train them down for the race, which really was pushing it.”

SUN SETS ON RAINBOW BLUE’S RACING CAREER

The phenomenal racing career of Rainbow Blue, the 2004 Horse of the Year, is over.

Trainer and co-owner George Teague Jr. had hoped the mare would recover well enough from a tendon injury suffered last June to race this summer, but it was not to be.

“She didn’t make it all the way back,” said Teague on Friday night. “She looks great, but once you put pressure on the area, you know that anything can happen. I trained her in 2:01 last week and was going to train her in 1:57 to 1:58 tomorrow [Saturday]. Wednesday I trained her, and I noticed the leg filling. It was tender to the touch.

“So I decided that was it,” he noted. “You’ll never see me do anything to compromise her in any way.

“Tendon issues are tough to come back from,” he explained. “Most don’t. Even though it was a small tear, it’s still very difficult to come back 100 percent. That’s racing. Now she can be a broodmare. She’s ready for that.”

Rainbow Blue, a five-year-old daughter of Artiscape * Vesta Blue Chip, retires with a record of 30 wins and one third in 32 career starts and a bankroll of $1,428,934. She took a mark of 1:49.2 at three and matched it during her brief 2005 campaign when she won all four of her starts.

Seventeen of her career starts were at the Meadowlands, where she had 15 wins and her only two losses. She was third by a neck in the $150,000 New Jersey Sire Stakes Final for two-year-old pacing fillies in her third career start, and she uncharacteristically broke stride and finished ninth in the $310,000 Mistletoe Shalee Final. Her Meadowlands victories included the Debutante at two, the Blossom, New Jersey Sire Stakes Final, Ladyship and Tarport Hap at three and two mares opens at four.

Bred by Winbak Farm of Chesapeake City, Maryland, Rainbow Blue raced in the name of K&R Racing LLC and Teague Inc., both of Houston, Delaware.