Columbus, MN — Steven Lake has been following harness racing for at least a few decades and has learned a lot from studying the game during that time.

He is a guy that puts in the necessary work and will not settle on a set of selections without digging up plenty of data and solidifying a set of legitimate reasons for his picks for a given race. His hard work and professional approach continues to shine through his results in his first season as the expert handicapper for the Running Aces harness racing product.

Running Aces handicapping analyst Steve Lake. Submitted photo.

A perfect example is the most recent Aces card from Tuesday night (Aug. 29), where he had five checkmark winners on the nine-race program, including a ‘Horse Of The Night’ selection that returned $5 and a $19.40 winner, both of which were $20 win bet suggestions on his sheet.

He also gave out a late Pick-4 ticket that was good for $1,155 (ticket cost $67.50), a late Pick-3 ticket worth $288 (cost $22.50), and a late double ticket that was good for $298 (cost $15). If you played all three, you picked up a profit of more than $1,636.

He has had many impressive nights like this throughout the summer, and currently sports a win percentage of more than 40.6 percent with his top selections.

Lake had been a fan of Cal Expo racing for countless years and began to follow Running Aces racing to keep tabs on the participants he was familiar with from Cal Expo.

He, along with another avid Cal Expo racing fan, Azarik Sivatjian, were principals among a group of guys that put together a fantasy harness racing league at Cal Expo. Those two gentlemen went on to put together a similar league for Running Aces, which has hosted several successful tournaments over the next few years.

Lake is a perfectionist and puts a lot of effort into his selections.

“I always have to have a good reason for my picks,” he shared. “If not, then I know I didn’t dig deep enough to find a reason and I’ll go back and work on it more.”

Countless hours pouring over race charts and watching race replays are the norm for Lake. When you see his selections on his sheet, you can rest assured that there are good reasons for those numbers that are on that sheet — and his results are speaking for themselves over and over again.

You can follow Steven Lake’s nightly Running Aces picks sheet on the track website.

Live racing continues at Running Aces every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday night into mid-September and will conclude for the 2023 season with special cards on Sept. 15 and 16. First post at Running Aces is 7 p.m. (CDT).