MONDAY, JULY 30, 2007
PRESS RELEASE

JIM FOLEY WINS CALIFORNIA TVG SPRING AMATEUR SERIES FOR SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR

Contact: David Siegel (dsiegel@axcis.com)

For the second year in a row, Amateur Driver James Foley took the top honors winning the TVG Spring Amateur Driving Championship at Cal-Expo. Jim was the top net point getter en-route to his second Californian title and in doing so won six times during the 17-week series.

A total of seventeen races were included in the series. This year, the races were all the same $3000 to $4000 claiming handicap paces. About half of the entrants were amateur-owned, the balanced entered by about twenty different trainers during the series. Twenty different drivers participated as well during the series run that began in April and concluded this past Saturday with Jason Maier taking the final event. Once again, the California Amateur Driving Club (CADC), continued to be a model for other clubs, and received great support from the Sacramento Harness Association (SHA) and the horsemen. Two special events highlighted the spring racing season. The East-West Challenge, where five of the nations top Billings drivers came to Sacramento for a five-race series, was held in late March and the California leg of the Northfield Park-Cal-Expo Pro-Am was held in June.

Finishing as the runner-up for the second year in a row as well was David Siegel, and in third place, was Sabrina Shaw. This year’s series included a cash award to the top two trainers based on first to fifth finishes of horses entered in the series. The award was shared as Lou Pena and Tim Clevenger dead heated for the title.

Third place finisher Sabrina Shaw will represent the CADC in the Tim Fouts Memorial Pace, which will be run the Sunday prior to the Little Brown Jug in September. CADC president David Siegel noted, “Sabrina will make a great representative for California. She is one of the great examples of how important amateur driving is to develop up and coming drivers. Last year, “Kid” Foley came on the scene here largely through the amateur program, went back to Delaware and won the Fouts and has driven regularly since. Sabrina is a very strong driver and frankly, a heck of a nice person as well. This year it is her turn to get into the spotlight, and at 24 years of age, has a bright future ahead of her.”

Siegel further commented, "The SHA understand the benefits of amateur racing and we so much appreciate their continued support. This year, we tweaked the series some and I think it worked quite well for the fans and our horseman. I am particularly appreciative of horsemen like Rick Plano, Bernie Wolin, Scott Cisco, Earl Kennedy and Dario Solares who entered horses regularly without having any direct connection to an amateur driver.”

For information about the CADC, please visit www.thecadc.com.