Steve Lake shines as Aces ‘Expert Handicapper’

Columbus, MN – Steven Lake has been following harness racing for at least a few decades and has learned a lot from studying the game during that time.

He is a guy that puts in the necessary work and will not settle on a set of selections without digging up plenty of data and solidifying a set of legitimate reasons for his picks for a given race.

His hard work and professional approach continues to shine through his results in his first season as the ‘Expert Handicapper’ for the Running Aces harness racing product.

A perfect example is the most recent Aces card from Tuesday night (August 29) where he had 5 checkmark winners on the 9-race program including a ‘Horse Of The Night’ selection that returned $5 and a $19.40 winner, both of which were $20 win bet suggestions on his sheet.

He also gave out a late Pick-4 ticket that was good for $1,155 (ticket cost $67.50), a late Pick-3 ticket worth $288 (cost $22.50), and a $1 base late Double ticket that was good for $298 (cost $15). If you played all three, you picked up a profit of more than $1,636.

He has had many impressive nights like this throughout the summer, and currently sports a win percentage of more than 40.6 percent with his top selections.

I had recognized his talents as a handicapper when following and sometimes participating in Fantasy Harness Racing tournaments based on Cal-Expo racing, starting back around 2016 or 2017. I was interested to follow the racing there somewhat, because of the large number of stables, drivers and horses from Running Aces that would also compete at the northern California track.

Mr. Lake had been a fan of Cal-Expo racing for countless years and began to follow Running Aces racing for the same reasons, to keep tabs on the participants he was familiar with from Cal-Expo.

He, along with another avid and loyal Cal-Expo racing fan, Azarik Sivatjian, were principals among a group of guys that put together a very cool Fantasy Harness Racing league and that is where I came to respect the handicapping talents of many in that group, including, most of all, the aforementioned pair.

Those two gentlemen would go on to help me put together a similar Fantasy league for Running Aces and we hosted several successful and fun tournaments over the next few years.

When I was looking for an expert handicapper for the 2023 Aces season, Lake’s name was at the top of my list, and to my delight he was willing to dedicate his time to the position.

Steve is a perfectionist and puts a lot of effort into his selections. He recently shared with me that “I always have to have a good reason for my picks, if not, then I know I didn’t dig deep enough to find a reason and I’ll go back and work on it more”.

Countless hours pouring over race charts and watching and re-watching race replays are the norm for Steve.

When you see his selections on his sheet you can rest assured that there are good reasons for those numbers that are on that sheet.

If you wanted to get in on the late Multi-Race action on Tuesday night at Aces, there were 1,636 very good reasons for those numbers on the late pick-x tickets that he touted, and then there’s also the $174 profit on the his suggested win bet in race nine.

His work ethic is outstanding and his results are speaking for themselves over and over again.

You can follow Steven Lake’s nightly Running Aces picks sheet on the track website: RunAces.com/LiveRacing/Handicapping/ExpertPicks

Live Racing continues at Running Aces every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday night into mid September and will conclude for the 2023 season with special cards on Friday (September 15) and Saturday (September 16). First post at Running Aces is 7 p.m. (CDT).

by Darin Gagne, for Running Aces