By Nick
Salvi for The Meadowlands
East
Rutherford, N.J. - Friday night at the Meadowlands celebrated the remarkable
career of Cat Manzi with that Hall Of Famer meeting fans then joining
friends and family for a night at the races.
On the track, the night featured
the eliminations for the top freshman trotting stakes of the 2014 Championship
Meet, the Peter Haughton Memorial colt stake and the Merrie Annabelle for the
fairer sex.
The Peter
Haughton required a single elimination of ten colts after three of the top
seasonal earners accepted a bye into next week’s $355,500 final. The first
seven in the official order of finish would move on.
Centurion
ATM was the 1:54.2 winner here for trainer driver Ake Svanstedt. The SJ’s
Caviar colt settled in fourth early as his stable-mate Amicus and The Bank took
turns on the lead through early splits of 28.2 and 57.2. Ake steered Centurion
ATM over into the passing lane as the field trotted ‘round the final bend and
as he headed The Bank, that one went offstride, leaving the winner to an open
length lead.
At the
wire it was Centurion ATM trotting home in :28 flat to be clear by three and a
half lengths over Uncle Lasse with Cruzado Dela Noche third. The winner is
co-owned by European interests Courant AB and Knutsson Trotting.
Trainer /
driver Svanstedt has had a clear impact on the scene this summer, his first in
the US after moving his entire operation from Sweden. With his experience in
Europe primarily training older horses, Ake has adjusted quickly to the
American emphasis on early speed and clearly will be a player throughout the
stakes season.
The
eliminated horses were The Bank, Broken Record and True Blue Stride. Joining
the qualifiers for next Saturday’s Hambletonian Day final will be Canepa
Hanover, Guess Who’s Back and Honor And Serve.
Lock Down
Lindy won the first of two Merrie Annabelle eliminations for the potent Tony
Alagna / Scott Zeron combination in a personal best of 1:55. Zeron held the
first crop Lucky Chucky filly behind cover from the three eighths forward as
race favorite Gatka Hanover cut the mile after working hard to get the lead.
Fanning wide in the drive, Lock Down Lindy went by willingly as Zeron rode
along confidently through her personal sub 28 final quarter for the half-length
score. Gatka Hanover held the place with Love Me Madly third. Lilu Hanover and
Wordie Hanover took the final spots for next Saturday’s $352,500 final.
The
winner is owned by Mystical Marker Farms, Crawford Partners, Joe Sbrocco and In
The Gym Partners who bought the filly from Love Lockdown for $60,000 last fall
in Lexington.
The
wickedly fast Mission Brief won the second elim in the dominant, front end
style she has displayed for the past few weeks, this time in a track record
1:53.2. The Muscle Hill filly has a remarkable turn of foot and can carry that
high speed, tacking a 27.3 final stanza on the record mile and was five lengths
clear of the field at the wire with driver Gingras saying whoa the whole way.
Jolene
Jolene was second and Onda Di Mare third while Livininthefastlane and Sarcy
both moved up a position into the final by the disqualification of Flirting
Filly from fourth for a pylon violation.
Mission
Brief’s dam is Breeders Crown winner Southwind Serena. Trainer Ron Burke as
Burke Racing, Weaver Bruscemi, J&T Silva and Our Horse Cents Stables were
compelled to pay $150,000 for the filly as a yearling last fall in Kentucky.
She certainly looks like a bargain at this point.
Yannick
reported post-race, “She was much more rateable this week. She’s figuring
things out and I’m figuring her out. She’s got it all.”
The twelfth race was the $20,000
second leg of the Ima Lula series for mare trotters aged four years and Classic
Martine was a courageous winner in 1:51.2. Bee A Magician asserted herself from
rail position and insisted on the lead early for Brian Sears, forcing leavers
NF Happenstance and Classic Martine to take a tuck toward the 26.4 quarter.
Sears was able to give his charge a nice breather in the middle half as Tim
Tetrick moved Classic Martine to the outside for a long, uncovered grind.
When the
two met in mid-stretch, it was Classic Martine with more and she edged clear
late, tacking a 26.4 final quarter on the mile, which was a mere fifth of a
second from Bee A Magician’s world record of a fortnight ago. The winner has
now won six of eight starts for earnings of $195,732 and has the five-eighths
mile world record of 1:51.2 on her resume this season. She is trained in the
Chris Oakes stable for Hauser Bros Racing, Susan Oakes, Conrad Zurich and Ed
Gold.
The night
began with the well-bred three year old trotting colt Royal Ice taking
advantage of an absolutely delightful evening to break maiden in a dazzling
1:51.3. Only Hollywood Heyden might be able to intelligently address the topic,
but it’s fairly safe to say that was the fastest any trotter has ever left the
maiden ranks.
The
meet’s leading driver Yannick Gingras was aboard for the first time on the son
of Muscle Hill from The Ice Queen and he just went to the front and improved
his position to an eventual eight length victory. Trond Smedshammer trains the
colt (who may have just become an instant Hambletonian contender) for Marc
Goldberg.
An added
bonus after race two was the second leg of the Racing Under Saddle series with
seven trotters facing starter Danny Dale for a $10,000 purse. Stephanie Werder
has come from her native Sweden to compete in the series, which culminates with
a $28,000 final next Friday and she rode her mount O U Gus to a 1:59.4 win in
tonight’s race.
Stephanie
sat just behind the lead of Chinese Cuisine and Tina Duer and was patient when
one of last week’s winners, Flowing James and Tara Hynes moved swiftly toward
the lead and sat quietly until an opening appeared mid-stretch for the win.
Live racing resumes tomorrow night
at 7:15 with the John Cashman Memorial FFA trot eliminations headlining the
card. Find tomorrow’s entries, tonight’s results and video replays by visiting
The Meadowlands website.
