Trainer Robert Fellows will be shipping in from Ontario on Sunday with a pair of trotters for the $250,000 Spirit Of Massachusetts at Plainridge Park, with Logan Park, one of the dominant older trotters north of the border, a prime contender in the featured event on a stellar program. Logan Park, a 6-year-old by Archangel, drew post two with Doug McNair scheduled to be in the sulky. "It's hard to get him races up here," said Fellows, explaining why Logan Park has not been in a competitive race in three weeks. "He needed a race so that's why I qualified him." The qualifier on Tuesday (July 16) was clocked in 1:56 2/5, a good training mile over a sloppy surface. A winner in four of his six starts this year, Logan Park has raced mostly on big tracks during his 70-race career, but Fellows is more than confident the five-eighths mile oval at Plainridge Park will not be a factor. "He set a track record at Rideau Carlton as a 3-year-old," said Fellows. Perhaps of greater importance for Logan Park this Sunday is his ability to race on the front-end and close to the pace. "He can leave like a hobbled pacer," Fellows said of Logan Park, who with a victory on Sunday could go over the $1 million mark in career earnings. Post position is always important, especially when going for big money. Logan Park drew post two - inside of last year's Spirit Of Massachusetts champion It's Academic (post six) and last week's (July 13) Hambletonian Maturity upset winner Chapercraz (post five). That pair hails from the leading stable in North America of Ron Burke, and the trainer is quite confident in his horses heading into Sunday. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter "It's been hard finding races for It's Academic," Burke said, echoing Fellows' sentiments, "But he's coming into the race in good shape and I expect him to race well." It's Academic not only captured the Spirit Of Massachusetts last year from post eight but followed that up with a victory in the John Cashman Memorial on Hambletonian Day. In the money 16 times in his 18 starts in 2023, It's Academic banked $951K in the process. While Burke conceded that It's Academic – by virtue of his purse earnings and age – has more class than stablemate Chapercraz, he wasn't counting out the 4-year-old son of Crazy Wow yet. "I wasn't surprised when he won last week," said Burke. "Yannick (Gingras) thought that if he had pulled him in the Graduate final, he may have won that race." Chapercraz was third to Winner's Bet in the Graduate final at the Meadowlands on July 6 and came back a week later to capture the mile and an eighth Maturity, his first win in 11 races this year. Fellows said that he expects to leave Ontario on Friday with both Logan Park and Esplosione, and perhaps make a two-day trip to Plainridge so as not to stress his horses, while at the same time perhaps enjoying an afternoon of Thoroughbred action at Saratoga. "I'm looking to stop at Saratoga and maybe get them out there to jog a bit," said Fellows. "It's about seven hours to Saratoga and another three hours to Plainridge." Fellows is concerned that the heat and travel could take a toll, and with the stopover the horses should both be fresh for the Spirit Of Massachusetts. As for Esplosione, a 5-year-old son of Kadabra that landed post three for Fellows, the trainer wasn't expecting much. "He doesn't breathe the same air as Logan Park," Fellows said. "I nominated both of them for this race, and I was hoping there might be a consolation for Esplosione." The nine-horse field for the Spirit Of Massachusetts has some power on the outside with Incommunicado (post eight) and Helpfirstedition (post nine), two horses entering the race in great shape. Ake Svanstedt trains and drives Incommunicado, a 6-year-old by Chapter Seven that has feasted on smaller tracks during his career with more than $880K banked. Incommunicado has won two straight Invitational trots at Yonkers in preparation for Sunday's contest. Helpfirstedition stepped up nicely when racing against older foes when he finished third in the Crawford Farms (June 29) at the Meadowlands for trainer Linda Toscano. The Indiana-sired gelding followed that performance with a solid fourth-place finish while coming from last in the 12-horse Hambletonian Maturity to miss by less than a length. Rounding out the Spirit Of Massachusetts field will be Buddy Earl (post one), Take All Comers (post four) and Delayed Hanover (post seven). On the Plainridge Park undercard of the 11-race program that commences at 2:00 p.m. is the $100,000 Clara Barton for pacing mares and the $75,000 Bert Beckwith Memorial for top flight older pacers. Sylvia Hanover (post one) looks for her first win as a 4-year-old in the Clara Barton and will pick up a new driver in Tim Tetrick on Sunday.