Amy Mooss (Juan Franco) has been a Cinderella story going into Saturday’s Night of Champions Saturday at Hawthorne. Four Footed Fotos)

By Mike Paradise for the IHHA

 Going into last weekend’s final legs of Hawthorne’s Night of Champions series it was “touch and go” whether or not the Gary Rath stable’s 3-year-fily pacer Amy Moose was going to be a finalist in the Plum Peachy championship.

 The daughter of Somestarsomehwere was in eighth place in her standings, just a few points ahead of bevy of other Illinois bred fillies going into leg four and things weren’t pointing un the right direction. Amy Mooss finished ninth in her previous Plum Peachy leg, two weeks earlier, earning only a single point.

 However, as the late MLB Hall of famer Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over.” And Amy Moose had one more opportunity to perform well and earn some valuable points for her Berwyn, Illinois owner Alan Beals. As it turned out, she didn’t just race well, she went off at 30-1 and showed her heels to 10 foes.

 That 50-point performance vaulted her to fifth place in the final; Plum Peachy standings and while she likely won’t be one of the favorites in the $189,701 showdown Saturday night, she doesn’t know that.

 So, Amy Moose no doubt will race heart out and maybe, just maybe, stun of Illinois harness racing industry again on Saturday’s Hawthorne’s gala night of is meet.

 Then there’s the story of talented but eccentric 3-year-old ICF male trotter Jewels For Champ from the Midwest division of the Erv Miller stable.

 Early on the Lou’s Legacy prodigy showed she was plenty fast enough to do well in the Erwin Dygert Memorial trotting series and perhaps even win the final when she sped to a 1:55.4 winning mile back in May at Hoosier Pak. That’s the good news. But bad news followed.

 Jewels For Champ couldn’t stay on stride for the entire mile in a race after that tantalizing performance. Time after time he was bet down but each time, he went off stride. Five different drivers failed to keep the horse flat. As far as the Night of Champions series he had only a single point for a sixth-place finish going into the last Dygert leg last weekend.

  However, the trotter was bet down to 7-5 odds last week so the word was out that this could be the night Jewels For Champ will put it all together and it was. The horse came from far out of it and breezed and paid just $4.80. He went from not in the top 25 to 7th in the final Dygert standings.

  The trio of the Erv Miller Stable of Pennsylvania, Louis Willinger of Kentucky and Marty Engel of Northbrook, Illinois dished out $32,000 for the horse as a yearling, He was unraced at two and he’s now become the morning line favorite for Saturday’s Dygert for state-bred male trotters. Jewels For Champ has been installed as the 5-2 morning line choice in the $134,744 Erwin Dygert championship.