Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Sleep Easy in Progress Pace at Dover Downs

November 7, 2005

Sleep Easy has won two of 13 races and earned $42,396 heading into Sunday’s $394,120 Progress Pace at Dover Downs in Delaware. The three-year-old colt (Dream Away-Witchcraft) advanced to the final with a fourth-place finish in his elimination race, which was won by Village Jolt in 1:50.4. Trainer Donna Marshall, though, is hopeful that Sleep Easy might be moving toward a return to his form of a year ago.

"We’re real pleased with the way he raced," Marshall said. "It’s just been one thing after another with him. We had some trouble with his blood earlier in the year and a lot of foot problems. He’s always feeling good, and he’ll be out in the paddock and next thing you know he’s got a shoe off; then he ends up getting an abscess in the foot. It’s enough to have to deal with racing without that other stuff."

Sleep Easy missed nearly two months of action this summer. When he returned, he finished 11th in a division of the Oliver Wendell Holmes at the Meadowlands on August 6. In his next five races, he was first twice and second twice. He beat Cane Pace winner Royal Flush Shark by 1¼ lengths in 1:52.2 at Freehold on September 23 and Marshall thought Sleep Easy was back on track, but he followed with four straight lackluster efforts. He was found to have bled after a fifth-place finish in the New Jersey Sire Stakes at Freehold on October 22 and was put on Lasix prior to the Progress Pace elims.

"Hopefully, that will be the key to help him," Marshall said. "Just when you think you’ve got things figured out, you find out that you don’t. I think he can compete with these horses when he’s right. He’s showed he’s got the speed. George (driver George Brennan) said he seemed real good last night, like he did last year. It’s definitely been frustrating this year, but it’s hard to say you’re disappointed because he gave us so much fun last year. I just appreciate the owners being patient."

In the other Progress Pace elim, Arts Day upset a field that included Rocknroll Hanover and Gryffindor, who had won four straight races including the Messenger and a division of the James Dancer. Driven by Eric Ledford and trained by Seldon Ledford, Arts Day won by three-quarters of a length over Escapable Beaux in 1:51.3. Rocknroll Hanover, who has won $1.8 million this year and saw a three-race win streak snapped, and Gryffindor were third and fourth, respectively.