by Tom Kelley, publicity director, Balmoral Park

Crete, IL — Illinois conceived and foaled action grabbed the Sunday (July 12) headlines at Balmoral Park with a pair of state-bred events for diagonally gaited 3-year-olds sharing top billing on the 10-race program.

David Baum photo

Captain Greedy and J D Finn prevailed by three-quarters of a length in Sunday’s Brandenburg.

The boys kicked off the action in race four as a field of eight colts and geldings met in the $8,000 Brandenburg Stake. Once again this figured to be a battle between the top two colts in the division, Captain Greedy and Fox Valley Qatar, and the race lived up to the pre-fight hype with Captain Greedy and J D Finn getting up in the final 100 yards to win by three-quarters of a length while knocking off last season’s divisional champ Fox Valley Qatar for the third straight time. The final time of 1:56 was a career best.

After taking the field through an opening quarter in :28.3 Finn elected to let a hard charging Fox Valley Qatar (Todd Warren) take command on the backstretch and that colt proceeded to lead the field through middle splits of :57 and 1:26.4.

Through the lane Finn angled the son of Yankee Valor-Tropical Trixie to the outside of horses, eventually wearing down the favored Fox Valley Qatar with a sixteenth of a mile to go for his fifth win in eight starts this season. Fox Valley Qatar was forced to settle for the runner-up role yet again while Southern Special (Brian Carpenter) finished third, 4-1/4 lengths behind the victor.

Sent off as the second choice in the wagering the John D Finn trainee returned $5.60, $2.80 and $2.10 while running his career record to 14-5-3 in 25 starts with earnings of $94,796 for owners Charles Doehring and John D Finn.

The girls were next on the docket as a field of eight 3-year-old fillies lined up behind the gate for the $8,000 Fox Valley Diva Stake. Continuing a nice mid-season run, Homer Hochstetler and Robert Buddig’s Persuasive Look overtook the early leaders in mid-stretch and drew off late to record a 2-1/4 length victory in 1:56.2.

Well handled by regular pilot Casey Leonard, the daughter of Powerful Emotion-Black N Bluegenes left hard from post four then settled into the garden spot while Bi Polar Rose (Travis Seekman) and Tal Wi Wi (John De Long) traded blows up front through splits of :29.1, :57.2 and 1:26.1.

Moving to the outside as the field neared the top of the lane, the Homer Hochstetler trained miss blew right by a tiring Tal Wi Wi to grab her third win in nine starts this year. Lc’snmotion (Mike Oosting) unleashed a nice late move to rally for the bridesmaid spot while Fox Valley Yoko (John De Long) was third.

With the win Persuasive Look now sports career numbers of 7-6-5 in 22 trips postward with earnings of $116,992. The 2-1 favorite in the wagering returned $6.20, $3.40 and $2.20 to her backers.