Foiled Again set to make career finale on New Year's Eve
While many Americans will be looking to wring in the New Year in style late on Monday night waiting for the ball to drop on 2018 and usher in the beginning of 2019, numerous harness racing fans will be looking to bid a fond farewell to Foiled Again as he caps his stellar, Hall of Fame career in a $13,000 Open event at the Meadows near Pittsburgh on Monday night.
A 14-year-old Dragon Again gelding trained by Ron Burke, Foiled Again will make the 331st and final start of his career in an Open event on Monday at the Meadows where he will likely be made the solid 6-5 favorite despite his generous, optimistic 3-1 morning line odds. Foiled Again has traveled across the landscape this season, competing 27 times at 18 different tracks, including several where he had never competed before. His final start is destined to be met with unprecedented fanfare at the Pennsylvania five-eighths mile oval perhaps best known as the home of the Adios for three-year-old pacing colts.
Foiled Again will head into his career finale with 109 wins and nearly $7.635 million banked from 330 starts and he has won his last three starts at three different ovals - Rosecroft Raceway, Harrah's Philadelphia and Mohawk Raceway - and will seek to ride off into retirement on a four-race skein. He rallied from midpack to capture an overnight event at Mohawk last Saturday night, two starts after overcoming a difficult first over trip to prevail in another overnight event at Rosecroft in 1:53.4
Foiled Again was recently honored with the Proximity Achievement Award by the United States Harness Writers Association, a distinction normally slated for humans. In fact, he is the first horse to garner the award since Rambling Willie, a genuine harness racing star of the late 1970's and early 1980's who enjoyed even greater fanfare and was widely renowned as "the horse that God loved" because his earnings were often earmarked for charitable causes.
Foiled Again began his career in genuine anonymity under the guidance of trainer Hermann Heitman, making his career debut in the summer of 2016 at Chester Downs then later being purchased by Burke and his owners and taken on the road. He captured numerous major open stakes during his career and appeared to get better with age during a stretch earlier this decade when he was named champion aged pacer in 2011, 2012 and 2013 when he took his lifetime mark of 1:48 winning an elimination of the Ben Franklin at Pocono Downs.
Foiled Again won the $150,000 Bobby Quillen Memorial three times during his career and was second on three other occasions in that event and he captured the lucrative, prestigious George Morton Levy Memorial series final twice. Foiled Again has since lost a step since being in his prime five years ago, often winning overnight races four seconds slower than the free-for-all pacers on the same card, but he has continued to gain fan support while competing in the latter stages of his Hall of Fame career and will head off into a well-deserved retirement following the 10th race on Monday evening at the Meadows.
A 14-year-old Dragon Again gelding trained by Ron Burke, Foiled Again will make the 331st and final start of his career in an Open event on Monday at the Meadows where he will likely be made the solid 6-5 favorite despite his generous, optimistic 3-1 morning line odds. Foiled Again has traveled across the landscape this season, competing 27 times at 18 different tracks, including several where he had never competed before. His final start is destined to be met with unprecedented fanfare at the Pennsylvania five-eighths mile oval perhaps best known as the home of the Adios for three-year-old pacing colts.
Foiled Again will head into his career finale with 109 wins and nearly $7.635 million banked from 330 starts and he has won his last three starts at three different ovals - Rosecroft Raceway, Harrah's Philadelphia and Mohawk Raceway - and will seek to ride off into retirement on a four-race skein. He rallied from midpack to capture an overnight event at Mohawk last Saturday night, two starts after overcoming a difficult first over trip to prevail in another overnight event at Rosecroft in 1:53.4
Foiled Again was recently honored with the Proximity Achievement Award by the United States Harness Writers Association, a distinction normally slated for humans. In fact, he is the first horse to garner the award since Rambling Willie, a genuine harness racing star of the late 1970's and early 1980's who enjoyed even greater fanfare and was widely renowned as "the horse that God loved" because his earnings were often earmarked for charitable causes.
Foiled Again began his career in genuine anonymity under the guidance of trainer Hermann Heitman, making his career debut in the summer of 2016 at Chester Downs then later being purchased by Burke and his owners and taken on the road. He captured numerous major open stakes during his career and appeared to get better with age during a stretch earlier this decade when he was named champion aged pacer in 2011, 2012 and 2013 when he took his lifetime mark of 1:48 winning an elimination of the Ben Franklin at Pocono Downs.
Foiled Again won the $150,000 Bobby Quillen Memorial three times during his career and was second on three other occasions in that event and he captured the lucrative, prestigious George Morton Levy Memorial series final twice. Foiled Again has since lost a step since being in his prime five years ago, often winning overnight races four seconds slower than the free-for-all pacers on the same card, but he has continued to gain fan support while competing in the latter stages of his Hall of Fame career and will head off into a well-deserved retirement following the 10th race on Monday evening at the Meadows.
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