Will dice roll in Graduate?

Load The Dice will need all the help he can muster to pull off the upset over Lis Mara in the $285,000 Graduate final on Saturday night the Meadowlands. A recent equipment change, the luck of the post position draw and the comfort of being back at his home base may just help the gritty 5-year-old pacer get the job done.

Load The Dice will start from the rail (head # 2) in the Graduate, race seven, and is rated at 20-1 on the morning line. The Graduate shares the spotlight with the $185,000 Arthur J. Cutler Memorial for free-for-all trotters. The undercard features the first leg of the New Jersey Sire Stakes for 3-year-old colt pacers, in which Artzina, the 2006 Two-Year-Old Pacing Colt of the Year, will make his first start of the season.

Trained by John McDermott, Load The Dice rode a lengthy hot streak from Oct. 14, 2006–Feb. 24, 2007. He was first or second in 13 of 14 starts during that period, winning 10 races. After dominating the free-for-all ranks at Balmoral throughout the fall, he shipped to the Meadowlands in January for the Presidential Series, in which he won a preliminary leg and finished second to Nuclear Breeze in the $116,600 final. Load The Dice was then sent to Pompano Park in Florida, where he captured the $157,500 Isle of Capri Pace on Feb. 24. 

After a month off and a few disappointing starts at the Meadowlands, McDermott shipped the pacer back to the Midwest for the Battle of Lake Erie on April 21 at Northfield, in which he was eighth, and the Dan Patch on April 28 at Hoosier, a fifth-place finish.

"Shipping really affected him by going to a few different tracks,” McDermott said. “When he came back from Florida he was sick. It was the worst move to send him off to the other tracks. When he came back from Florida, he had a virus. It swept through my entire barn. Now that he is back in his barn and at this track, hopefully he will get his energy back.

“In Indiana (Hoosier Cup) he was steering poorly,” he continued. “I made some equipment changes on him and he was steering much better (in last Saturday’s Graduate prep race). He has to freshen up. He likes being stabled steady, so hopefully that will help.”

Load The Dice finished sixth in last week’s Graduate prep race, won by Stonebridge Regal in a scorching 1:48.1.

"I was happy with the way he raced (in the prep),” McDermott said. “I was happy with the way Dave (Miller) drove him by sitting in with him. Hopefully, it will strengthen him up for next week. He is not quite the horse he was. He is already tired. We need to freshen him up. It is so hard to do right now. We want to give him time and find out what is bugging him. We need to get him back in top form. Hopefully, being home for a few weeks will help him.”

Load The Dice has won 18 of 71 career starts and banked $567,420 for Illinois-based Engel Stables, D.R. Van Witzenburg and the Sheffield Stable of Gladwyne, Pa. (Meadowlands) 
 

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