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Round Two in what is hoped to be a season-long series of pacing showdowns is set to take place at the Meadowlands Racetrack on Saturday, and at least one owner involved with the principal characters will cherish every minute of it. He likely wont be alone.Highlighting the $471,800 William R. Haughton Memorial for older male pacers is another much-anticipated battle between 5-year-old Always B Miki and 4-year-olds Wiggle It Jiggleit and Freaky Feet Pete. The trio will have its second head-to-head-to-head meeting in what is the most talked-about rivalry in harness racing in years.Always B Miki won the first match-up at the July 2 Ben Franklin Pace at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, beating Freaky Feet Pete by three-quarters of a length in a world-record-equaling 1:47. Wiggle It Jiggleit, the 2015 Horse of the Year, took third.Last weekend, Wiggle It Jiggleit beat Freaky Feet Pete at the Graduate Series championship at the Big M, but the race was only for 4-year-olds so Always B Miki wasnt eligible to compete.Before the Ben Franklin, I cant recall seeing as much dialogue on a race in a very, very long time, said Bob Boni, one of Always B Mikis owners. There was a real buzz all week about that. It started out this week with similar sentiments. Everyone is wondering whats going to happen in the race?I think its drawn a tremendous amount of attention. Its on a great card, a lot of people are going to see it. Weve got a number of other times when were scheduled to hook up, potentially, and I think it will be something that will continue to grow because its a very talented field of older horses.It is something that Boni and his fellow owners (Bluewood Stable, Roll The Dice Stable and Christina Takter) do not take for granted.Were very fortunate and very appreciative, Boni said. Those are the words I constantly use. Ive been very blessed that Ive had some pretty good horses over the years. Mikis the latest right now and hes about as good as anybodys horse. Its a great thrill, but you cant race horses on this level for a long time and not appreciate how fortunate you can be and how great it is to be around horses like this.Especially when it comes to Always B Miki, who was sidelined for nearly a year because of injuries but has returned to win nine of 11 starts with two second-place finishes and earn $642,710 since last October.In seven starts this season he has five wins and two seconds, winning $341,500. Trained by Jimmy Takter and driven predominantly by David Miller, he has finished in the money in 36 of 42 career starts, with 23 wins and $1.56 million in earnings. Roger Welch trained him as a 2-year-old and Joe Holloway had him at age 3, and Boni credits everyone involved for making the pacer the horse that he is today.His chief rivals on Saturday have equally impressive statistics, which has helped create the excitement. Wiggle It Jiggleit -- owned by George Teague Jr. and Teague Racing Partnership, driven by Montrell Teague, and trained by Clyde Francis -- has won 32 of 40 lifetime races. Freaky Feet Pete -- bred by Larry Rheinheimer, who trains the stallion for his wife Mary Jo and son Marty -- has won 29 of 35 career starts.Always B Miki drew post five in the Haughton Memorial while Freaky Feet Pete is in post seven and Wiggle It Jiggleit is in 10. The race attracted 12 starters, so it will be contested at 1-1/8 miles rather than the traditional one-mile distance.We always have confidence in him, Boni said. Jimmy and David have just done a great job with the horse. Its going to be fun all year racing. Well go at it again and Ill always say the same thing, I like our chances, as Im sure the other guys will say too.The Ben Franklin was a hard-fought race and they all were competitive, they all took shots and they made it a very good event. How its going to happen this week I have no idea because if you try to talk to anyone that tried to handicap the Ben Franklin, I dont know anybody who handicapped it the way the race fell.Boni feels what is interesting is that all three horses are Indiana-sired and none of the three are owned by major stables, which he feels should give hope to other owners out there.Were essentially a small stable, were one horse, he said. George Teague races a moderate stable and the Rheinheimers, this is the first time theyve been exposed on this level, so these are not some of the names that youve seen in recent years. Thats a very healthy thing. The naysayers that say you have to buy expensive horses and have to have a big stable, thats not always the case. You can compete. It can happen at any time.In assessing the horses, Boni feels each one has their unique qualities and some similarities.Very little seems to bother Wiggle It Jiggleit, he can race on any size racetrack, and Freaky Feet Pete, the same thing; hes been a terrific horse from his 2-year-old season, he said. They all have brilliant high speed. I would say the other two probably leave the gate faster than Miki does. Hes not quick off the gate. But once they get settled in they can all go very fast and they show they can go fast a long way.Boni says Always B Miki enters the Haughton Memorial a healthy, happy horse.It would have been nice if we didnt have those injury issues, but he did, the owner said. In a somewhat bizarre way, I think hes a better horse for it. Hes much sounder now.Its because of those injuries that Always B Mikis group continues to cherish all the good things that happen now.I dont think theres anybody here that takes any of this for granted and if anybody did, Mikis had a way of reminding us with a couple incidents that we better not take it for granted, Boni said with a laugh. I think were all very appreciative. I dont know anybody who doesnt appreciate what he does.The Haughton Memorial is part of a stakes-filled card Saturday at the Meadowlands. Among the nights other races are the Crawford Farms Meadowlands Pace, Mistletoe Shalee, Hambletonian Maturity, and divisions of the Stanley Dancer Memorial and Delvin Miller Memorial.--By Rick Fisher-Courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, please visit www.ustrotting.com.Cheap Padres Jerseys . -- There were a lot of firsts for the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. 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He totaled 41 tackles and three interceptions while starting all but four of the 13 games he played last season.RIO DE JANEIRO -- A public shaming at the Olympic Games isnt pretty.After the scandal of state-organized Russian cheating and Olympic officials spineless response, it perhaps was only a matter of when, not if, a Russian athlete in Rio would be booed and blamed.Olympians and fans are disgusted. Understandably so. Revelations that Russian officials erased doping positives, flushed away dirty urine samples and gave cheats a clean bill of health are sickening. So, too, was the International Olympic Committees refusal to ban Russia outright from the Rio de Janeiro Games.But swimmer Yulia Efimova is a poor poster child for Russias deceit.Yes, the 24-year-old is Russian. And, yes, she did positive in 2013 for a banned steroid, DHEA. That doesnt, however, automatically make her a doper. Three arbitrators, none of them Russian, who heard Efimovas case and banned her from competition for 16 months were clear about that.They ruled that she clearly was not intentionally cheating and she did not intend to enhance sport performance.Instead, they determined, Efimova was negligent. The legal supplement she bought at a store near her home in California contained DHEA. It even said so on the label. But Efimova naively believed the store clerk who told her the product was OK and did not read the label herself, they determined.Foolish, then, but not Lance Armstrong.The arbitrators noted that Efimova impressed them as sincere and honest and appropriately remorseful for her mistake. She did not seek to blame others for her rule violation and she accepted responsibility for her actions.These all-important nuances got drowned in the Olympic pool.The Cold War-ish narrative of a feisty 19-year-old American, Lilly King, striking a blow for clean athletes by staring down and beating the Russian was too appealing to let all the facts get in the way.Another U.S. swimmer, Cody Miller, even went so far as to liken his teammates defeat of Efimova in the 100-meter breaststroke to the movie Rocky IV, where Sylvester Stallones boxer knocks out juiced-up Soviet monster Ivan Drago.BOOOOM!! Miller tweeted. AMERICA PREVAILS!!Get a grip.Howard Jacobs, the California lawyer who represented Efimova in her 2014 case heard by the doping panel for swimmmings governing body, FINA, says ire against her is misplaced.ddddddddddddIts not that everyone who tests positive is evil, he said in a phone interview. There are very few athletes who take the time to understand anti-doping until they are actually thrown into an anti-doping case because of a mistake that they make.For the record, FINA also cleared Efimova for the six times meldonium was found in her drug-test samples in February and March this year. The Latvian-made heart drug was routinely taken by East European athletes before the World Anti-Doping Agency banned its use at the start of the year. But the science behind the ban was incomplete and WADA subsequently issued new guidelines allowing athletes to be cleared in some cases.FINA said the amount of meldonium in Efimovas samples was very low and that its doping panel concluded that she wasnt at fault.WADA could have challenged FINAs decision and appealed but did not, judging that the federation handled the case correctly.Those are the rules.Efimovas rivals may not like them. They may not like her. But should they ever run afoul of those same rules, theyll also want a fair shake and likely be on the phone to lawyers like Jacobs.When they hear stories about contaminated supplements, they think its all BS, he said. They dont believe it until it happens to them.If swimmers need a target, they should aim at FINA instead. The federation awarded Russian President Vladimir Putin its highest honor, the FINA Order, in 2014 for what it gushed was his great contribution to strengthen the fraternity between nations, improve the lifestyle and education of the youth in Russia and promote a healthier society.That coziness, always inappropriate, now looks just horrible in the wake of the Russian state-sponsored doping scandal.The next time King takes to the Olympic pool -- she and Efimova race in 200-meter heats on Wednesday -- it would be good to hear her take a stand on that.---John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester(at)ap.org or follow him at http://twitter.com/johnleicester ' ' '