It's been said the only sure thing about luck is that it will change. In the case of three-year-old pacer Artstanding, that was good, because up until his win in the Cane Pace elimination race last weekend, it had pretty much been bad.

The colt has battled respiratory problems, bleeding and fatigue, which led to him racing only once between June 24 and the Cane Pace elim on August 26 at Freehold Raceway.

The Cane Pace final, the first leg in the Pacing Triple Crown, is September 4 and features of field of eight horses, including Pepsi North America Cup champ Total Truth and New Jersey Classic winner Feelin Friskie.

Artstanding has won three of 19 lifetime starts and earned $604,419 for owners Jim Switlyk and Bob Gorney of New Jersey and trainer Tom Fanning. He was second to Feelin Friskie in the New Jersey Classic and then finished sixth in his elimination race for the Pepsi North America Cup at Woodbine Racetrack. He failed to advance to the $1.5-million final.

"When he came back from Canada he was sick with an upper respiratory infection," Fanning said. "He never actually had a temperature but he was coughing. We treated him with antibiotics and gave him some time off. We thought we gave him enough time off but then he bled a little bit as a result of the illness, so we put him on Lasix.

"Then we raced him in a non-winners-of-three race at the Meadowlands and he didn't race as well as we would have liked. We took blood on him and his electrolytes were all out of whack. It was a very hot, humid night that night and it was tough on him. We had to skip the Meadowlands Pace and the Holmes, and that was hard to do, but it's also hard to watch him race poorly."

David Miller qualified the horse at Freehold on August 18, winning by 23 lengths in 1:56.4. Ron Pierce drove him in the Cane Pace elim, where Artstanding won by three-quarters of a length over favourite Took Hanover in 1:52.3, just one-fifth of a second off his lifetime best win time.

"He went in to the Cane elim off that qualifier, which I wasn't crazy about, but I give credit to David Miller," Fanning said. "He said to put him in and get him qualified and he'd be that much better in the final, and he was right. He drew the rail [for the elim] and Pierce gave him a perfect drive."

Fanning, a native of Oradell, New Jersey, started his career with horses as a hotwalker for Thoroughbred trainer Danny Perlsweig at the Meadowlands. He later worked for harness trainer Ray Vaughan-Thomas, spending time on both coasts. He has had a public stable since 1986.

"I'd always liked horses and animals, so I just walked in the backstretch and asked how you got a job," Fanning said. "I walked hots for free for a month and eventually one guy quit, so I got the $75 a week that Danny was paying him to walk horses. I did eventually get to take care of one cheap horse, but he broke down and it was the end of the meet. I wanted to try the harness horses because they are less fragile and more hands on".

"I was always a nuts and bolts kind of guy, never worked for a Grand Circuit stable. I bought one horse with my brother in 1983 and trained him on the side. He started one time and broke down. His name was Fate," Fanning added with a laugh.

Fanning's stable earned $730,283 last year – his best season to date. He could top that mark this year; his horses have earned $598,300 so far. Artstanding is eligible to all the major stakes on the schedule, including next month's Little Brown Jug, which is the second jewel in the Triple Crown.

"We'll have to talk to the owners and see what to do next," Fanning said.

Courtesy of Harness Racing Communications

8-29-2006