East Rutherford, NJ –
The New Jersey Sires Stakes (NJSS) will field three divisions of sophomore
trotters to kick off the 2016 state-bred season on Friday night at The Meadowlands.
The
headliner is Southwind Frank, consensus choice for this season’s top trotting
stakes including the August 6 Hambletonian. The son of Muscle Hill has had a
pair of conditioning qualifiers in anticipation of his seasonal debut and will
leave from post position four in a super-sized field of a dozen in this $25,000
leg (race six). Ron Burke trains Southwind Frank for himself as Burke Racing,
LLC, Weaver Bruscemi, Our Horse Cents Stable and J&T Silva. Yannick Gingras
resumes his position as the champion colt’s driver.
The
fillies split into fields of eight in the second race and seven in the fourth,
each for a $20,000 purse.
Gingras
has the logical favorite in the first division where he’ll steer Breeders Crown
winner All The Time for the Jimmy Takter stable. A winner of nearly a half
million dollars at two, All The Time races for owner/breeders Marvin Katz and
Al Libfeld.
Wildflower
got a late start but finished her freshman year strong with an upset
win in the Kindergarten final and a solid fifth place finish in the
Goldsmith Maid. Ake Svanstedt trains and drives the Muscle Hill lass for
himself, Douglas Sipple and Mal & Janet Burroughs, LLC.
Friday is
Military Appreciation Night at The Meadowlands
where our veterans will be recognized for their service.
The standard
guarantee on horizontal wagers is in place, free
program pages for the late Pick-4 are
available courtesy of Trackmaster and the last race Hi-5 Super Jackpot stands
at $222,459 to open the weekend.
