by Tom Kelley, publicity director, Balmoral Park

Crete, IL — The Erv Miller trained duo of Power Of A Moment and Iam Bonasera figure to be the ones to beat in Saturday’s (Sept. 19) Super Night Finale, the $240,000 Orange & Blue Stake for 2-year-old pacing colts.

Power Of A Moment has been accorded the 3-1 favoritism as he looks for his fourth straight ICF “major” championship after capturing the $71,000 Mini Me Stake at Balmoral, the $50,000 State Fair Stake Final in Springfield and the $80,000 Governor’s Cup Stake at Du Quoin over the past six weeks.

In his Orange & Blue elimination the son of Cole Muffler and Panfastic posted a decisive five length triumph in 1:52.4 for driver Marcus Miller.

“He’s one of the toughest horses I’ve ever driven,” said Miller after the victory. “He just does everything on his own and he loves to win races. I’ve never really asked him for much. He’ll just grind and grind until he gets the job done. He’s like an older horse not a 2-year-old.”

Iam Bonasera is a close second choice at 7-2 after overcoming some traffic problems to win in 1:51.3, which was the fastest of the three elimination battles.

The gelded son of Cole Muffler-Shesoluvabull is now four for seven in his career including a win in a Governor’s Cup elimination in a career best of 1:51.1.

Trainer Paul Stafford sends out the third elimination winner in Fox Valley Escort, who will be trying to give the Engel & Rucker Stables another Super Night title.

The full brother to the great Fox Valley Topaz did not make his debut until August 2 and after a couple of soso efforts it appears as though he’s starting to find his stride at the right time with back-to-back victories coming into this battle.

Although the final time of 1:53.3 was the slowest of the eliminations this gelding opened some eyes with the way he circled rivals on the far turn for driver Mike Oosting before pulling away from his foes for a 1-1/4 length victory.

Mystical Victress will be tough to stop in Filly Orange & Blue Final

The ladies have the distinction of going for the biggest jackpot of the night as a field of 10 2-year-old pacing fillies meet in the $250,000 Filly Orange & Blue Stake.

Mystical Marker Farms’ Mystical Victress has been the dominant filly in the division and she figures to be tough to stop as she looks for her seventh win in nine career starts.

The daughter of Sportsmaster and Sneakheravalentine had no problem overcoming the eight hole in her elimination victory as she charged from seventh to first in the final quarter-mile to win by three-quarters of a length in 1:55 for driver Brandon Simpson.

“I didn’t want to use her too hard in her elimination which is why I kept her so far back in the early going,” explained Simpson. “I knew I had the best closer in the race and that she was going to give me that one big move which I figured would be enough to get us into the final and it wound up working out perfectly.”

The Erv Miller trained miss, who also captured the $68,000 Loyal Opposition Stake here at Balmoral back on August 1, has not missed a check in eight career starts and will open as the 5-2 morning line favorite with Simpson back in the bike.

Miller also has two other fillies going postward in the race in M A Maria (5-1) and Miss Kellie (10-1).

Upsets were the order of business in the other two Filly Orange & Blue Stake eliminations last week as the Nelson Willis trained Casino Hotspur rallied in the final strides to win by a head at 13-1 with Simpson driving.

“I was surprised we were able to work out as clean a trip as we did,” he commented. “Once we hit the top of the stretch I knew I had plenty of horse and thought we’d have a big chance to get there in time.”

Trainer Ray Hanna and driver Michael Cox teamed up to pull off a 24-1 shocker with Nice Big Star in 1:54.4 which was the fastest of the three eliminations.

Given a perfect steer by Cox the homebred daughter of Party At Artsplace showed her versatility by leaving quickly then relaxing nicely when put in a hole by Cox. After securing racing room in the late going the filly closed with a rush to pick up her seventh win in 10 starts this year.