from Meadowlands Media Relations

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – March 12, 2005 – JK Royal Flush and Town Champion each won a $25,000 division of the first round of the Four Leaf Clover Series on Saturday night at the Meadowlands.

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JK Royal Flush paced the mile in a lifetime best of 1:50.2 to win the first of the two Four Leaf Clover divisions.

JK Royal Flush [$9.00, $4.00, $3.80], driven by Yannick Gingras and trained by Virgil Morgan Jr., found room up the pylons to score a length and a half victory over Shattered Halo [$3.40, $3.40] in the third race, the first of the two Four Leaf Clover divisions. Fox Valley Gallant [$6.80] was third.

“I just got lucky,” said Gingras. “I had a great trip. He’s a real nice horse. Things opened up for us in the end. He had a lot left over. With a trip like that, you can’t ask for anything else.”

JK Royal Flush paced the mile in a lifetime best of 1:50.2, picking up his first win in seven starts this year.

“He finally got a real good trip,” said Paul Stratton, who oversees the New Jersey division for Virgil Morgan. “He has good gate speed and got himself in the two-hole position. He was able to squeeze down the rail near the wire. He could have gotten a couple of wins in the previous series he was in [Aquarius and Complex] if he got a good trip.”

The four-year-old son of Cam’s Card Shark now has career earnings of $188,235 for the partnership of the Darby’s Edge Stable of London, Ontario; Joseph DiScala Jr. of Chappaqua, New York and Ed Mullinax of Amherst, Ohio.

In the second division, carded as the fifth race, Town Champion [[$6.20, $3.20, $2.40] held on for a length and a quarter victory over 7-5 favorite Maltese Artist [$3.00, $2.20] in 1:51 flat. Armbro Brando [$2.60] was third by a length and a half.

Town Champion, a four-year-old son of The Panderosa, posted his second straight win in four starts this year.

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Town Champion, a four-year-old son of The Panderosa, posted his second straight win in four starts this year in the second Four Leaf Clover division.

“He has been good since he came back,” said driver Eric Ledford. “In his first two starts, he didn’t have much of a chance so we raced him fairly conservatively from off the pace. In the last two weeks, we’ve been getting more aggressive with him at the gate. Tonight the horse to beat, which was Ronnie’s horse [Ron Pierce with Maltese Artist], followed me. He [Town Champion] fought him off very gamely in the end.”

Town Champion, trained by Seldon Ledford and owned by James Jesk of Lamont, Illinois, now has a career bankroll of $176,309.

The three-week Four Leaf Clover Series continues next Saturday and concludes with a $122,000 final on March 26.