Northfield: Lather Up fit and ready for Milstein Memorial

A combination of hard work on the part of Northfield Park officials and a measure of fate have led to perhaps the best field in the history of the Carl Milstein Memorial. The $400,000 race for 3-year-old pacers slated for Saturday evening has lured four of the seven richest competitors in the division for a mile-long sprint around the Flying Turns of the Northern Ohio half-mile oval.

Leading the field in terms of reputation is 2-1 morning line choice Lather Up from post 2. The North America Cup winner is tops among sophomore pacers in terms of earnings at $500,365 in 2018 for trainer Clyde Francis, driver Montrell Teague and owners Gary & Barbara Iles.

Lather Up was perfect in seven starts this year before a miscue in the Max Hempt at The Downs at Pocono resulted in an eighth-place finish. The colt would take a rest before qualifying back in 1:48 4/5 while second behind Lazarus at The Meadowlands. The four weeks on the sidelines seemed to help.

“Fitness-wise he’s way better than he was, but he was still on the right line just a little more than we want him to be. He was running in a bit on the turns but in the straightaway he still paced a 25 quarter,” said Montrell Teague about the qualifying effort.

In his first race since the Hempt, Lather Up posted a huge parked-the-mile win at Scioto Downs in an Ohio State Fair race. He was shown no preferential treatment as the 1-9 favorite with driver Dan Noble refusing to yield behind Bounding Dragon.

“I wasn’t too happy with the trip that I got, but we made it work,” said Teague. “I thought I had the best horse but it seems the guys out there want to do everything they can to get you beat. I don’t know if they do it on purpose because I’m an outsider or what, but they took a chance to get my horse beat so they can win the race.”

While Bounding Dragon is an exceptional Ohio-bred, Lather Up is back against some of the best in the division on Saturday. Max Hempt winner Springsteen (David Miller, post 4), Adios winner Dorsoduro Hanover (Matt Kakaley, posy 5) and Ontario standout Jimmy Freight (Louis Roy, post 1) lucked into inside post positions which will certainly cause Lather Up concern.

“Usually a lot of people are leaving in a big race like this and I’m just glad I got the inside,” said Teague. “We’ll figure out which horses are going to leave out of there and what is the best trip to get.”

Even the horses with longer odds on the morning line look very strong on paper. Thinkbig Dreambig has been a fringe player recently in the Meadowlands Pace and Adios but finally draws an inside post (3) to work with this week. Minnie Vinnie (Aaron Merriman, post 6), Slick Tony (Russell Foster, post 7) and Always A Prince (Trace Tetrick, post 8) are all coming off victories in their home states. Of the statebred winning trio, Always A Prince is the one who sports the pure speed on paper to compete. He has won 11 of 13 races in 2018 with a 1:48 4/5 career mark.

“He’s a very nice animal,” said Trace Tetrick, who is hoping for some action during the race to help his cause. “I’m sure the pace will be contested and the pace will be hot. With the eight-hole we’ll have to hope they falter or maybe push our cards and see what happens.”

With seven of the eight horses in the field coming off a win, Teague and just about everyone else would agree that the 2018 Milstein, carded as race 11 of 16 races, should be a wild ride. “There’s no sleeper in there and any one of them could win the race,” concluded Teague.

Post time at Northfield is 6 p.m. for the card that also features multiple divisions of Ohio Sire Stakes.

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