Mike Paradise for the Illinois Harness Horseman’s Association

Crete, IL — The magic yearling price in my barn is $9,500,”says trainer Homer Hochstetler. And it appears the recent Illinois Hall of Fame inductee is right on target with that figure. That’s the amount owner Shirley Le Vin had to pay at the 2006 Walkers Standardbred Sale for the 3-year-old Illinois bred pacer Park Lane Deputy, Saturday night’s $56,700 Cardinal Final morning line favorite,

Balmoral Park photo

Park Lane Deputy (Dale Hiteman) looks for his fifth consecutive victory in Saturday’s Cardinal Pace Final at Balmoral Park.

“Shirley (Le Vin) also bought My Boy David for $9,500 and he has turned out to a millionaire for her,” said Hochstetler. Now six, My Boy David has banked over $1.2 million for his Barrington Hills, IL owner. The multi-stakes champion has a lifetime mark of 1:47.4, taken at Springfield as a 3-year-old.

While no one (yet) is comparing Park Lane Deputy to his illustrious stable-mate, both Hochstetler and driver Dale Hiteman see plenty of potential in the sophomore son of Sportsmaster, the first foal out of the Grinfromeartoear broodmare Darling Katherine.

Park Lane Deputy will carry a four-race winning streak in Saturday’s eleventh race feature and in the colt’s lone loss of the year on April 18 came when he was blocked throughout most of Balmoral’s long stretch, shaking loose late, and ending up a head behind the winner.

“He is a very nice horse” said Homer. “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 then brought him back home. The horse has done nothing wrong since he’s been back.

“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.” Out here (at Balmoral) it takes a real good horse to do a 26 flat without a tailwind.”

Park Lane Deputy won his Cardinal elimination last week in 1:52.4 (:26.2 last quarter) on cruise-control after a career best 1:51.3 mile on May 9 in an ISOBA stake division.

“As far as his elimination, you’ve got the favorite so you don’t want to monkey around” said Hiteman. “I let him settled in and then I made the move to go to the front. He won the race on idle.

“He’s a young horse that every time out finds a way to improve. So far we’ve haven’t tapped into his potential. I’m just a passenger enjoying the ride,” said a smiling Hiteman. “I was really stunned in his first start of the year. I wasn’t expecting a big mile but he came up with one, winning in 53 and a piece, and he came home with some thunder. He showed me in that first start he likes to race. The horse has a lot of ability.”

Park Lane Deputy drew post six in the 10-horse final field. The first five slots belong to Grandma Jan’s Max (Tyler Buter), Sandbar Slugger (Brandon Simpson), My Boy Luke (Josh Sutton), Jamboree (Sam Widger), and Smellthecolornine (Marcus Miller), in that order. Henry Gram (Todd Warren), Timewell (Todd Warren), Filthy Rich (Lavern Hostetler) and Sponzo Brotka (Dave Magee) have posts 7 through 10, respectively.