Meadowlands: Foiled Again victorious in morning qualifying session

After just a few months off, Older Pacer of the Year Foiled Again was back on the track at the Meadowlands on Friday morning. As the featured attraction on a star-studded 8-race qualifying card, the 10-year-old once again refused to lose, getting his neck up on the wire in 1:53 1/5.

Foiled Again settled in third behind Bettor’s Edge and Word Power through fractions of 28 2/5, 57 4/5 and 1:27. Regular driver Yannick Gingras edged Foiled Again off the cones by the three quarter call and he began to sprint along with the competition. The trio flew home in 26 seconds, with Foiled Again finding a way—as usual—to win.

“He was very good,” said Gingras. “That is exactly the mile we wanted to go with him.”

Despite the narrow margin of victory, Gingras let on that he may have had more in the tank.

“He fought them off like that because I let him. If I would have chirped at him or something, he would have gone on more,” said Gingras, before talking about the quality of the effort. “Bettor’s Edge just went in (1):49 a month ago and Word Power already qualified in (1):52 and change, yet he beat them easily.”

Gingras also sat behind one of the more visually impressive performers of the morning. Charisma Hanover, a stablemate of Foiled Again from the Ron Burke barn, won by just over eight lengths in 1:53 2/5.

“I wasn’t sure if Ron (Burke) would qualify her again, so I went a bit faster with her than I normally would have,” said Gingras.

The 4-year-old mare had a tall task facing the likes of Breeders Crown winner Shelliscape (second behind Charisma Hanover) and three-time Older Mare of the Year Anndrovette, who finished third behind Summertime Lea and one spot ahead of top mare Rocklamation one race later in 1:52 3/5.

“She trained really well when I sat behind her last Saturday,” said Gingras on Rocklamation. “We had a plan in mind today and we’ll go faster with her next time.”

The fastest mile of the morning was turned in by another Burke trainee in Sweet Lou. The now 5-year-old cruised through fractions of 27 3/5, 56 3/5 and 1:25 2/5 before stopping the timer in 1:52 1/5.

Foiled Again along with the rest of the older pacers are preparing for the George Morton Levy Memorial and Blue Chip Matchmaker series’ at Yonkers raceway that commence on March 21 and 22.

[DRF HARNESS: Check out our NEW and IMPROVED Harness Eye PPs and see our discount packages]