by Mike Paradise, for the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association

Hinsdale, IL — Of the eight Super Night championships to be decided at Balmoral Park this Saturday (Sept. 18), the most prohibitive favorite will be Richard Balog’s Pardon in the $218,000 Orange and Blue Filly Final.

The homebred freshman filly has been flawless in her first season of racing.

Balmoral Park photo

Pardon and Dave Magee were 1:53.4 winners in their Orange and Blue Filly elimination on Sept. 11.

The daughter of Richess Hanover, out of Balog’s broodmare Rose Dawson, has rattled off triumphs in her first nine lifetime starts and in most cases they were strictly one-sided affairs for driver Dave Magee and trainer Dirk Simpson.

When did her conditioner realize he might have a “special” 2-year-old?

“I didn’t know how good Pardon might be until early in the summer,” Simpson answered. “We trained her in the group with everybody else and every day was the same for her. She never had a bad day.

“When I raced her at Springfield I brushed her home one day and she came home in :27 like it was nothing for her. That’s when I knew she might be a notch above some of my other young horses.

“I didn’t want to get my hopes real, real high,” continued Simpson. “But this filly has been sound from day one, knock on wood, and she feels good every day. Pardon is always zoned-in to race. She’s just mentally sharp out here every time.”

In Pardon’s June 30 pari-mutuel debut in a Balmoral maiden race she drew off by five-plus lengths with Magee in 1:57.2. Next up was supposed to be a much tougher test in a Hanover Stake division against Open company freshmen but Pardon aced it in 1:54, winning by almost three lengths.

Her only close decision came next in her Loyal Opposition elimination when she raced first up but still overtook Mystical MJ to win by a neck in 1:55.4. In the $63,500 final on July 31 she whipped her same rival by 3-1/4 lengths (:27.3 last quarter) with a 1:52.4 mile.

Pardon then won with plenty left in both her State Fair elimination and in the final at Springfield that included her career best 1:52.3 mile. And she was all out only at the end of a 1:54.4 victory in her Du Quoin championship.

Last Saturday Pardon again had plenty left in the tank at the finish of her 1:53.4 Orange & Blue elimination triumph.

“The filly makes it look easy,” said Dave Magee after the race. “She just keeps going and she still hasn’t seen the end of the mile. I was kind of letting her coast the last eighth to let her keep her confidence level high. It ended up being pretty easy for her.”

Pardon just quietly goes about her business on and off the track.

“She was an easy filly to break and she’s always been good around the barn,” said Simpson. “You never knew she was even around. She’s always quiet. She has always had a good attitude.

“I didn’t start out with her on ear plugs,” added the 53-year-old native of Fairfield, Ill. “In about her third start I asked Dave about it and he said ‘yea put them on. Maybe we might need it.’ And she took to those real easy and now when Dave pulls them out she goes into another gear.”

Pardon’s owner and breeder, Richard Balog of Saint Charles, Ill., knows all about champion horses. The former Illinois Racing Board Commissioner is the owner of the brilliant trotter Plesac, who competed nationally from 1999 through 2003 and became the richest state-bred horse of all-time with purse earnings of $2,501,758.

— Mike Paradise writes a daily column for the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association at www.harnessillinois.com.