by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Ken Weingartner

Freehold, NJ — Someday, Mark Weaver hopes to find another horse like Foiled Again. He knows the odds are not in his favor.

“It’s like saying you want to find the next Michael Jordan,” Weaver said. “It’s sort of unreasonable.”

Weaver is among the owners of Foiled Again, who heads to Saturday’s $175,000 American-National Stakes at Balmoral Park as the 7-2 morning line favorite. Foiled Again, trained by Ron Burke and driven by Yannick Gingras, has won 13 of 27 races this year and earned $1.32 million. His earnings trail only 3-year-old pacer Roll With Joe, with $1.44 million, among all harness racing horses this year.

But those figures merely scratch the surface when discussing Foiled Again.

The 7-year-old gelding, a son of Dragon Again-In A Safe Place, this season became the oldest pacer in history to have a million-dollar campaign. He has won 57 of 144 career races and earned $3.33 million, ranking No. 7 on the all-time list for pacers.

Fotowon photo

Foiled Again has won 57 races in his career and banked $3.33 million.

Since joining the Burke Stable in July 2008 in the middle of his 4-year-old season, Foiled Again has raced 98 times and won 49 races. Remarkably, he failed to earn a paycheck only three times.

“He’s a worker,” Weaver said. “He’s not flashy, but he’s fun to watch and very consistent. You’ve got to give Ronnie a lot of credit. Every year (Foiled Again) gets better and better. To have a horse at the top of the open ranks for three or four years, it just doesn’t happen.”

Weaver owns Foiled Again with the Burke Racing Stable, Mike Bruscemi and JJK Stables, which is the nom de course of Joe Koury and his sons Joe Jr. and Kevin. Weaver said it was Kevin Koury who suggested the group buy Foiled Again in 2008.

“He’s not the fastest horse, but what makes him great is his toughness,” Joe Koury Jr. said. “He just seems to get it done. He’s always there. He never races badly. I just don’t know how to describe it.”

Foiled Again comes by his reputation as a hard-working tough horse honestly. He arrives at the races every March and competes into mid- or late-November. He is as fresh at the end of the campaign as at the beginning.

In 2009, he won six of his final 12 races and was never worse than second during that span. In 2010, he won five of his last eight races and again was never worse than second. The trend continues this season, with Foiled Again posting four wins in his last six starts and the defeats being second-place finishes — by a head to Bettor Sweet in the Breeders Crown at Woodbine and by a nose to We Will See in the Allerage Pace at The Red Mile.

“You feel kind of bad because you’re asking him to do a lot, but he seems to respond to it,” Weaver said. “He continues to impress us every year. He’s just tough. He gets raced hard every year and it seems like every year he’s racing best in November.”

Foiled Again entered this year with the reputation for being a small-track specialist, but this season he won the Graduate at Meadowlands Racetrack and the Indiana Pacing Derby at Indiana Downs. Both of those tracks are one-mile ovals.

His 1:49.2 win in last weekend’s Indiana Pacing Derby broke a track record first established seven years ago.

“Visually it was pretty impressive,” Weaver said. “Yannick just let him pace the last eighth of a mile.

“I think winning the Graduate was really big in showing what he can do on bigger tracks,” he added. “The small-track label hits a nerve a little bit with us, but he’s earned that reputation.”

Foiled Again has won 33 times on half-mile ovals, including two Levy Memorial championships at Yonkers Raceway, two Quillen Memorial titles at Harrington and two Battle of Lake Erie crowns at Northfield. He also has 19 victories on five-eighth-mile tracks.

“Anybody that enjoys harness racing and wants to be in the sport dreams of a horse like him,” Koury said. “He means so much, not only from an economic standpoint for the stable, but for the experiences he’s provided us: To go to different racetracks and meet different people, race in big races.

“To experience those types of things has been truly amazing. Eventually this train is going to come to a stop, but he’s given us some ride, that’s for sure. Hopefully he can continue to do it (next year). We’ll see what happens.”