East Rutherford, NJ – Saturday night’s
race card at The Meadowlands has a lot to offer. The first leg of the Graduate
Series brings Grand Circuit four-year-old trotters and pacers to town and
the pacing side of the New Jersey Sires Stakes gets underway, featuring
2015’s top freshman Boston Red Rocks in his seasonal debut.
The Graduate trotters were split into
a pair of $50,000 divisions with Wings Of Victory, fresh off his lifetime best
1:51.4 win here last week, listed as the morning line choice from the rail
in race two. Trainer George Ducharme and owner Ray Campbell, Jr will enlist
Corey Callahan to drive their stable star for the first time on Saturday.
Pinkman (PP #3) makes his second
seasonal start in division two (race six). Last year’s Trotter of the Year got
nipped at the wire by Wings Of Royalty after doing the heavy lifting on
the front end last Friday. He’s been pronounced fit and ready to go off
that effort by Yannick Gingras who drives the gelding regularly for trainer
Jimmy Takter and owners Christina Takter, John & Jim Fielding, Joyce Mc
Clelland and Herb Liverman.
The Graduate pacers, a talented,
well-balanced field of nine, assemble for the $75,000 eighth race. Rockin Ron
(PP #4) has been perfect since joining the Ron Burke stable late last year. The
latest in the line of Indiana invaders to join pacing's upper echelon
has strung together eleven straight wins and scored his first Grand Circuit
victory in the Confederation Cup last Sunday. Rockin Ron was matched
successfully with Gingras for the first time in that outing and the pair shall seek to extend
the streak for the ownership group of Burke Racing, Weaver Bruscemi and
RTC Stables.
The competition is led by the
iron-tough In The Arsenal who will be leaving from the rail for Brett Miller
after a useful closing effort in his first start against the best Open
pacers last week.
Boston Red Rocks never missed the
board in nine starts as a freshman and secured divisional honors with
his late season heroics, by winning both the Breeders Crown and Governor’s Cup
finals. With a pair of impressive qualifiers under his belt, the imposing son of Rocknroll Hanover gets
underway from post four in this $25,000 test for owners Peter Blood and
Rick Berks. Steve Elliott and Tim Tetrick provide plenty of championship
experience as his trainer and driver.
The competition is led by Ideal
Rocky, who vanquished the top choice in the NJSS freshman final last year and
Katie’s Rocker who quietly had a solid season at two and has made a good
appearance in both of his morning trials.
The pacing fillies (race five) are
led by Blue Moon Stride who will attempt to defend her NJSS tiara, having won
last year’s final. She faced Grand Circuit types through the balance of her
freshman season and has earned more money in her career than her eight
opponents combined. Andrew McCarthy has the drive from post position six for
trainer Mark Harder and owners Emilio and Maria Rosati of Australia.
Saturday is Preakness Day as well as
the scene of the All About Beer Magazine’s World Beer Festival,
so the place will be “hoppin”. Don’t miss it.
Post time is 7:15 p.m.
