by Darin Gagne, Running Aces Track Announcer

Columbus, MN — It was a moment of triumph for owner Mikaela Degiudice when her 6-year-old trotting gelding, Margin Call, crossed the wire a 2-3/4 length winner on Saturday night (July 1) at Running Aces. It was not a stakes race, or even an Open level event, but it was a pivotal victory in so many ways, as it has always been a project to get Margin Call’s feet and shoeing just right.

Dee Leftwich photo

Margin Call has overcome foot problems to return to the winner’s circle at Running Aces.

Degiudice along with her trainer/driver and significant other Rick Magee spoke of the horse last summer when the then 5-year-old by Revenue S was at his very best, winning three or four races in a row including the Open trot, and taking a lifetime mark of 1:56.1, which was just three-fifths of a second off of the track record.

The couple explained how he was wearing four different shoes at that time and it had been a long road of trial and error intermingled with sweat and tears to get to that point.

Toward the end of the Running Aces season in 2016, Margin Call began to have more foot and shoeing issues.

The horse qualified on May 13 of this year in 2:01.3 finishing third while registering the fastest last quarter (:27.3) of the day. In his first start of the year on May 20 Margin Call finished a respectable fourth on a sloppy track, but then made breaks in his next two outings and required another qualifier. He completed that contest with a close second place finish in 2:00.

In his next start Margin Call broke before the start, but recovered very nicely to finish a strong second in 1:59. He followed that up with a clean line and a close third, again in 1:59, after Magee and Delgiudice had made his fourth shoeing change in four weeks.

His owner joked “Margin (almost) has as many shoes as me”.

Delgiudice reached out, as she often does, to the harness racing community as she was soaking his feet and looking for advice on additional treatments and shoeing options to help her beloved “Moo”. The racing extended family/community responded with many helpful suggestions, and the hard work continued.

After Margin Call’s impressive victory in 1:58.2 on Saturday, Delgiudice was quick to note that “Sometimes It takes a village to raise a trotter, so many people have been so helpful, he is such a loved boy, and for Margin to get back to the winner’s circle, it just makes my heart feel good.”

It is strong testament once again that hard work, persistence and willingness to seek advice will usually pay off, and in this case they certainly have.

Saturday’s win was Margin Call’s 14th lifetime tally and pushed his career bankroll to $52,992.