by Timothy M. Jones, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Springfield, IL — Rock Hollywood and Power Of A Moment picked opportune times to return to form as they repeated freshman Illinois Colt Stakes championships as sophomores on Wednesday (August 18) at the Illinois State Fair.

Dave Magee piloted Rock Hollywood to a 1:54 score.

Rock Hollywood (Dave Magee) overcame post eight in the 3-year-old Colt Stakes trot final with a 1:54 effort. The Psychic Spirit-Sarafina The Great homebred landed third on the rail heading to the quarter.

“He was comfortable there, but then the pace slowed,” said the winning pilot. “He felt strong, so we moved to the front.”

From that point on it was catch me if you can — which no one did.

Showmeyourstuff (Marcus Miller) came within a head of the leader at the three-quarters, but by the top of the stretch the field was four lengths in Magee’s rearview mirror. Rock Hollywood’s :27.2 last quarter provided a 3-1/2 length cushion at the wire over Powerful Speed (Todd Warren) and Muscatine (Dale Hiteman) who finished third.

Trainer Mike Brink said, “We thought he was good for today. We opted not to race him in the prep because he came down from Canada a little off. Davey said he was as good as he’s ever been.

“He leaves Thursday to race in the Colonial at Chester on Sunday.”

Kjell Magne Andersen of Oslo, Norway owns the big 17.2 hands tall gelding who has now won two of six 2010 starts with lifetime earnings of $153,867. The Colt Stakes title is also a new lifetime mark.

Timothy M. Jones photos

Power Of A Moment and Marcus Miller crossed the finish line in a time of 1:50.4.

Power Of A Moment returned to the same winner’s circle he entered as a 2-year-old Colt Stakes pace champion.

Marcus Miller had plenty of options from post one behind the gate, but no main plan of action. Protecting position, he led the 10-horse field to the quarter in a snappy but comfortable :27.1. Fox Valley Barbosa (Brian Carpenter) trailed the leader at every call, but could get no closer than 1-1/4 lengths at the half and three-quarter stations.

A blistering last quarter of :25.3 (eight of the 10 starters had last quarters of :26.1 or better) by the Cole Muffler-Panfastic gelding stopped the timer at 1:50.4. Fox Valley Barbosa remained second, while I Am Bonasera (Dave Magee), with a surreal :24.4 final panel, was third.

Trainer Erv Miller explained, “He was off form for awhile. He went to Canada (North America Cup) and we lost him a little bit. But he’s back now.

“He’ll stay here in Illinois through Du Quoin, and then Super Night.”

“I kept looking over behind the gate and the good ones were all outside,” said winning driver Marcus Miller. “There wasn’t anybody stepping out of there hard. I had the rail, I thought I might as well use it. I caught an easy middle half. I knew they’d have a hard time catching me from there.”

Power Of A Moment is owned by the Ervin Miller Stable, Inc., Leland Mathias and Bert Hochsprung. This winning trip equals his lifetime mark plus lifted his purse earnings to $361,121.