Casey Leonard will again be at the lines of the I CF 3-year-old pacer Fox Valley Patriot, the heavy favorite in Friday’s third race at Hawthorne. (Terry Young Photo)

By Mike Paradise

Now that the dust has settled from last Sunday’s marathon 18-race ICF stake program at Hawthorne, some trainers of the non-winning pacers and trotters are, not surprisingly, dropping their horses into much easier spots this time around.

 After a wealthier stakes’ night program, the winners often get a week or more of rest unless they’ve been lightly raced going into stake finals. Not always so for many of the losers. It is back to work to earn some dough for the people who pay the bills.

 There are class drops and then there are huge class plunges on some horses and that is the case for the Erv Miller Stable’s Fox Valley Patriot. The Somestarsomewhere gelding has been second best thus far behind the ICF three-year-old division leader Fox Valley Landen and has not finished worse than third in his nine season starts.

  Fox Valley Patriot dropped a narrow neck division at Du Quoin to the latest star from the barn of Amy Husted and came home with a swift 25.4 last quarter, his fourth runner-up finish on the season.

 Last weekend he rallied from tenth at the first quarter to be third to Fox Valley Landen. Back in late July at Springfield Fox Valley Patriot’s mile time was 1:50.4 in yet another second best finish to “Landen” who motored to his second 1:50 winning mile of the season.

  However, drawing the three-slot last week with two trailers made the task for driver Casey Leonard a difficult one, to say the least.

 “I expected a lot of horses to sprint out of there and they did,” said Casey. “Some of them weren’t the caliber of horses that belonged in a stake race and that caused traffic problems. With a couple of horses in the second tier, we got away near the back of the pack.

 “My horse tries hard, and he did again on Sunday We just had too much round to try and makeup. He did very well to be third.”

  As for tonight, Fox Valley Patriot drops down to a low-end non-winner of two races lifetime conditioned pace with his current regular driver Casey Leonard. Drawing the outside eight-slot did “Patriot” no favors but he’s expected to make his first winner’s circle stop of 2023 in convincing fashion.

 One of Fox Valley Patriot’s two wins as a freshman came early as a two-year-old at Springfield, and since racing at the State Fairgrounds isn’t an extended meeting, the youngster is still eligible for Friday’s third race conditioned pace.

  Interestingly, one of Fox Valley Patriots main threats tonight is the Tom Simmons trained three-year-old Fox Valley Presley, one of the trailers in Sunday’s ISFCS championship.

 “Presley” landed the pole position tonight. On Sunday he left from the inside 10-post with a wall of horses in front of him, and a trailer on his right, and was a non-factor, finished last and far out of it. Another Somestarsomewhere prodigy, Fox Valley Presley does own four season wins, and all came when Casey was driving him earlier this summer. The $35,000 yearling buy will be more competitive tonight.

  Major Harley, Arcadia Sportacular, Isle Coach, Fox Valley Treason and Sunmaster are the other third race hopefuls Friday night.