by Mike Paradise, publicity director, Maywood Park

Melrose Park, IL — To say the least, Home Bed Advantage’s first two racing seasons have been an emotional roller coaster ride for his owners.

The speedy Illinois bred pacer makes his 4-year-old debut at Maywood Park on Friday night (May 2) in the ninth race conditioned pace after a five-month layoff and he looks ready to roll after a strong 1:53.4 qualifier on the half-miler eight nights ago when he was nine-plus lengths the best. He’ll open up as the 3-2 morning line favorite with regular driver Ryan Anderson.

“Home Bed Advantage is really sound now and he’s really good. I think we’re going to have a big year from him,” said trainer Dave McCaffrey, who shares ownership of the swift pacer with MJGB Racing Stables of Nanuet, N.Y.

In 2006 Home Bred Advantage sped to a 1:50.1 clocking at Balmoral, the fastest ever for a 2-year-old pacing gelding on any size track. He went on to capture eight of nine starts as a freshman, including the coveted Orange and Blue Colt Championship on Super Night and was named the Illinois 2-Year-Old Male Pacer of the Year.

An ambitious stakes schedule both in and out-of-state awaited Home Bed Advantage for his second season campaign, however it was a year when the Cole Muffler offspring only competed during five months and with mixed results.

“There has been bad news and good news for Home Bed Advantage since his freshman year,” said McCaffrey. “The bad news is that he went winless last year in 12 starts and got so sick he nearly died. The good news is that he made over $256,000 in 2007 and he’s healthy now and ready to go.”

As a 3-year-old Home Bed Advantage picked up purse checks in such major stakes as the Berry’s Creek (The Meadowlands), the $1 million Art Rooney (Yonkers), the Cleveland Classic (Northfield), and the Maywood (Park) Pace before being sidelined three months with a crippling disease that left him “close to death.”

“Home Bed Advantage had Potomac horse fever last year and he almost died,” said McCaffrey. “Our vet told us the night when he was being loaded in a trailer to go to the clinic it was 50-50 that the horse was going to make it through the night. We were thrilled he battled back from the illness, regained his health, put on 200 pounds, and was a solid second in last October’s Windy City Pace three months later.

“This year we’re aiming for the Cook County stake in June at Maywood, the first of three $40,000 series legs with a $20,000 bonus to the horse that accumulates the most points. Home Bed Advantage is eligible for the new Presidential series at Hawthorne for older Illinois breds; a race goes for $50,000 if he makes that final. Then we’ll aim for Super Night at Balmoral and the $100,000 Dan Patch.

“We’re a little limited in what is available for him on this circuit but I’m bound and determined to keep this horse racing in Illinois because Home Bed Advantage is just not a very good traveler,” said the Iowa native. “Home Bed Advantage is a ‘home boy.’ He just wants to stay in his little stall. When you ship him he won’t eat. He goes on a hunger strike and a horse that is shipping needs his strength. When he came back to Maywood he was O.K. When we shipped him out he would get all messed up again. And then he came up with that dreadful disease.”