Balmoral the place to be for local harness race of the year

If you've never been to a harness-racing track but want to see a good, old-fashioned horse race, then head out to Balmoral Park tonight because the race of the year on the Chicago circuit quite likely will occur there.

Several of the fastest and most successful horses in the world will be in town for the $200,000 American National aged pace, the highlight of the Crete oval's American National Festival of Racing that features six lucrative stakes races.

The 3-year-olds might be considered the ''glamor division'' in horse racing, thoroughbred and standardbred, but the real equine rock stars for my money are the aged horses. It's sort of the difference between watching a good high-school football game and the NFL.

These aren't some punk kids with a turn of speed, but racehorses in the truest sense, equine athletes who understand the drill, know how the race and -- this should perk up your betting interest -- on a given day, just about any of them can win.

''The top older horses are just fun to drive,'' said Tim Tetrick, the record-smashing Downstate Illinois native who will make his first local appearance of the year tonight. ''They're more seasoned. You don't have to worry about 'protecting' them like you do with young horses. They know their business, so as a driver you can focus more on working out the right trip.''

Of the 10 starters in the American National field, four are millionaires, three have banked more than $2 million in their careers and one, the 3-1 morning-line favorite Mister Big, is the second-richest pacer ever with $4 million in earnings.

This will be the last hurrah on the racetrack for Mister Big and for locally owned $2 million earner Art Official, both of whom are being retired to stud.

Mister Big hasn't been as dominant in 2009 as he had been the previous two years, but the 6-year-old has had his moments, including a victory in the Ben Franklin at Chester in 1:48, which equaled the fastest time in history on a five-eighths-mile track.

Shark Gesture, the 7-2 second pick, is knocking on the door of seven-figure earnings in '09, having won the Canadian Pacing Derby, the Haughton and the Graduate. Won The West, the morning line's 4-1 third choice, pulled one of biggest upsets of the year in capturing the Breeders Crown in 1:47. He could pull off an Am Nat three-peat after winning last year's aged pace and the 3-year-old male pace in '07.

If you need more than one race to get you out to the track, consider that two other Breeders Crown champions will be at Balmoral: If I Can Dream ($1.6 million earned in '09) in the 3-year-old male pace and Yellow Diamond (12-for-20 this year) in the sophomore filly pace.