Long time ICF champion Fox Valley Gemini (Casey Leonard will return to race as a 10-year-old. (Four Footed Fotos)

By Mike Paradise for the IHHA

 How about some good news concerning Illinois harness racing? Three-time Illinois harness horse of the year Fox Valley Gemini will be back in competition in 2025, says his long-time driver and job-sharing conditioner Casey Leonard.

 “Yes, Fox Valley Gemini will race as a 10-year-old,” said Casey. “He has been back on the racetrack preparing to compete He’s still sound. At his age he can’t go with the good ones out there like he did, but he will still give you all he’s got in a race,”

 The Yankee Skyscraper gelding out of the Cole Muffler broodmare Epona will being a gaudy lifetime record of 64 first place finishes in 144 starts and $776,776 in purse earnings to the track when he does race, likely on Tuesday, May 13th and again eight days later on Wednesday, May 21st at Springfield in the Illinois Spring Preview for state-breds ages three and up.

 The vast majority of Fox Valley Gemini’s plush bankroll came in his first six years of competition for his owner Jim Ballinger and Illinois Hall of Fame trainer Terry Leonard when he was hands down, the fan favorite of the Illinois harness racing circuit.

  Fox Valley Gemini was a five-time winner in 21 starts as a nine-year-old, making a modest $36,303 with the state’s Standardbred’s purses are at embarrassing low levels. The gutsy veteran did uncork a 2024 season mark of 1:50.3 at Du Quoin in late July.

 “I thought he was coming around when he paced that mile,” continued Casey, but he couldn’t sustain that kind of performance.”

 With summer-time harness meet at Hawthorne apparently a thing of the past, racing at Springfield and Du Quoin, when it doesn’t rain, has been all that’s left for “Gemini” and his fellow Illinois bred horses.

 Terry Leonard’s farm is in Harvey, Illinois, some 250 miles away from the Illinois State Fairgrounds and close to a 400-mile trip to the Southern Illinois scenic facility at Du Quoin, and those travelling distances haven’t aided the barn’s star pacer.

 “Fox Valley Gemini never has been a good shipper,” added Casey.

 While the gelding with a big heart is nearing the end of his racing career, he is a shoo-in to become a future inductee into the Illinois harness racing Hall of Fame.

 Fox Valley Gemini didn’t wait long in his racing career to show he might be a “special” horse. He went nine-for-nine as a freshman and extended his unbeaten streak to 16 in a row before it ended with a second-place finish midway through his sophomore campaign.

 Of all the horse’s many accomplishments, “Gemini’s” record six consecutive Night of Champions showdown triumphs (2017 through 2022) seals his status as one of Illinois all-time standout pacers.