by James Witherite, Meadowlands media relations
East Rutherford, N.J. – Limelight
Beach, the 2014 Little Brown Jug winner, makes his seasonal debut in Saturday’s
featured event at The Meadowlands. The 5-year-old gelded son of
Somebeachsomewhere and Benear tackles seven others in the $20,000 upper-level
pace, and has been installed as the 2-1 morning line favorite in the evening’s
eighth of 14 races.
As a 4-year-old, he only managed a pair of wins in 21
starts. Nonetheless, he maintained a string of minor placings in stakes
events through North America, including a second-place finish in the Prix
d’́Été at Hippodrome 3R and a third-place finish in the Canadian Pacing Derby
at Mohawk. Yannick Gingras is reunited with the Ron Burke trainee, and
the pair start from post 8. Among the other top contenders are Rockeyed
Optimist (post 7, Tim Tetrick), who was just outkicked in his seasonal debut
last week, and Ashley’s Husband (post 2, Brett Miller), whose ferocious :25.4
last quarter last week propelled him to victory in the top pacing event.
A pair of sub-featured $13,000 conditioned paces make
up half of the late Pick 4 sequence, with third-level fields contesting the
ninth and eleventh races. In the ninth event, Mark Capone trainee
Kingofthejungle (post 9, Andy Miller) seeks to make amends after facing
top-level competition, but will square off against Meadows invader Some Kinda
Beach (post 2, Jim Marohn, Jr.) and Yonkers shipper UF Rockin Dragon (post 6,
Tetrick), both of which step down from tougher competition as well. The
eleventh race is equally competitive, given the consistent success of Cobalt
Man (post 1, Tetrick) and Dune Dude (post 5, Gingras) at this class along with
Jacksrluckytoo (post 6, Joe Bongiorno), who has proven a gritty contender on a
consistent basis of late.
The pair of sub-featured events are the foundation of
the late Pick 4, which carries a $50,000 guaranteed pool and begins in race
nine. Earlier in the card, another Pick 4 and a Pick 5 boast $55,000 in
additional guaranteed pools, while over $114,000 in carryover money will await
punters in the night’s two 20¢ Jackpot High 5 wagers should neither jackpot be
claimed on Friday.
Post time for Saturday’s program is 6:35 p.m. Eastern.
