Corey Callahan got the jump on Driver of the Week honors, finding
the winner's circle five times on Friday night at The Meadowlands.
Callahan didn't waste any time, winning the first two year old
event of the season at The Meadowlands, with the John Butenschoen trained Ideal
Rocky, a Rocknroll Hanover colt that cost $47,000 at the Harrisburg yearling
sale.
Callahan and Butenschoen would team up again later on the night,
winning a condition trotting event with the Currier and Ives winner, Suit and
Tie. The Captain would also go on to score with B Stern in wire to wire
fashion in a condition pacing event for fillies and mares at 13-1. He
also guided Beach Story to a strong win in a very tough upper-level condition
pacing event for mares and steered Tirade Hanover to a well-meant win in a
competitive middle level condition trotting event. With the five wins,
Callahan moved into the top-five in the Meadowlands drivers standings.
The feature race of the night was the $50,000 TVG Free For All
Trot, the third leg in the $1.2 Million series. Obrigado made his debut in the
series and he made it a winning one, scoring in impressive fashion in 1:51.3, a
lifetime best performance. Last week, Obrigado found himself locked in throughout
the mile while crying out for racing room in the stretch, Mark Macdonald made
sure that wouldn't happen this time, putting his gelding in the game early.
But Obrigado had to work hard early on, parked out by DW's NY Yank, the
9/5 favorite and the two raced in tandem past the quarter in 26.3.
Shortly after the trotters turned into the backstretch, Obrigado cleared
the lead and it was a lead he would not relinquish. MacDonald effectively
backed his trotter down to a 55.3 half mile before reaching three-quarters in
1:25.1, completely a tepid 58.3 middle half-mile. In the stretch,
Obrigado simply out-sprinted the field, kicking home in 26.2 to complete the
triumph. Flanagan Memory rallied to finish second with Melady's Monet
overcoming traffic trouble in the stretch to finish third.
Obrigado is co-owned by his trainer Paul Kelley, L. Higgins and W.
Weaver III.
The fifth race Jackpot Super Hi-5 survived another night, despite
a 15-1 upset and that carryover will be $168,564 into the Saturday program.
The last race carryover swelled to $149,836 as well.
Racing resumes on Saturday with first post time at 7:15 P.M.
