Balmoral Park

Contact: Tom Kelley
(708) 672-1414

TROTTING COLTS STAR IN PLESAC STAKE SPLITS

Chevie Hyper (#3), between horses, held on gamely in a tight photo to take the first of two Plesac Stake divisions on Tuesday night at Balmoral Park.

The first stakes event of the 2008 season for Illinois conceived and foaled two-year-old trotting colts was contested on Tuesday night as a total of 13 diagonally gaited youngsters went postward in a pair of $5,000 Plesac Stake splits.

In the first division Clyde Stevens' Chevie Hyper looked sharp while posting a hard-fought head decision in 2:03.1.

Coming off a win in the Spring Review at Springfield, this gelded son of Armbro Tropicana left alertly and was able to enjoy a pocket sitting journey for most of the mile thanks to driver-trainer Ronnie Guhy.

After pulling from the pocket at the top of the lane, Chevie Hyper gradually wore down the pace setting, and 3-5 favorite, Mach Ten (D.R. Ackerman) in the final strides to get the victory. The heavy favorite was forced to settle for the runner-up role while Valley Of Vice (Dave Magee), who had a miscue behind the gate, benefited from a disqualification to move from fourth to third.

Southern Rocketop (#5) held off the late rally of Justa Rebel to win the second division of the Plesac Stake on Tuesday night at Balmoral Park.

In the nightcap Claude Powers' Southern Rocketop shrugged off a break behind the gate to post another head decision in 2:03.4 for driver Brian Carpenter.

Despite the misstep behind the gate, Carpenter managed to gather up the son of Psychic Spirit and the two headed for the front. After being parked through the opening split, the Monique Bernardi trainee then made the top and gamely held off his rivals with a sparkling 28.1 final quarter. Justa Rebel (Merv Chupp) turned in a nice effort to rally for second while Definer (Dave Magee) was third.