Both the
pacing and trotting races attracted 36 nominees with most of the stars of the
division listed among them. Payments continue through May 15 for those races.
A pleasant
side-effect to the new races was a considerable bump in nominations to
the existing stakes for older horses at The Meadowlands that will support the new FFA events as point bearing
legs.
The paces
are way up; the WR Haughton Memorial rose from 28 to
42 nominees and the US Pacing Championship from 32 to 45.
The trotters saw
less of a spike. With the Nat Ray being considered a paid in race for the first
time this year, it netted seven more nominees that the stake it is
replacing, the now defunct Titan Cup. The Arthur Cutler Memorial increased
by three from 32 to 35.
Older
pacing mare stakes dipped with the Lady Liberty off five and the Golden
Girls down ten from the 2012 numbers.
On the
sophomore front, the Mistletoe Shalee
also saw a positive gain of five nominees while the Meadowlands Pace took a disturbing 29 percent dip from
42 to just 30 this year.
The three year
old trots experienced an uptick with the Stanley Dancer gaining seven and
the Del Miller for fillies up by nine.
The Fall Final
Four races opened on par with the 2011 figures for February. Those two year old
events will be raced at the start of the 2013 Fall Meet with the eliminations
on Saturday, November 23 and the rich finals one week later.
