East Rutherford, N.J. – City Hall
($5.80) used another powerful stretch kick to crush his eight foes in Friday
(December 16) evening’s co-featured $18,000 top-level pacing event at The
Meadowlands, winning his fourth consecutive race and giving driver Brett Miller
one of eight wins on the 13-race card.
Miller floated into midfield with the
6-year-old Metropolitan gelding, settling well behind Matrix of Luck (Joe
Bongiorno) and Bullet Bob (Corey Callahan), who alternated on the lead through
early fractions of :27.2 and :56. With just over half the mile remaining, City
Hall latched onto live second-over cover from Screaman Seaman A (Marcus Miller)
and worked into contention on the far turn before pushing three-wide off the
corner and vaulting clear at once. Ultimately City Hall would use a :26 final
kick to put 4-3/4 lengths on the field for a 1:50.1 score. Bullet Bob held
second despite heavy pressure through the far turn, while El Bloombito (John
Campbell) saved third out of traffic.
Amber Buter trains City Hall for Gene
Oldford Farms, LLC and Tyler Buter.
Miller’s eight driving wins on the card
gives him a share of the all-time record for wins on a single card at The
Meadowlands, equaling Hall of Fame driver Michel Lachance’s eight-win
performance in 1995.
Rubber Duck the one in trotting feature
In the co-featured $18,000 top-level
conditioned trot, Toronto invader Rubber Duck ($4.80) made his Big M debut a
winning one, continuing his ascent after losing cover on the far turn before
drawing clear to a 3-1/2 length win over I C Caviar (Brett Miller) and Buddy
Hally (Corey Callahan) in a rapid 1:52.3 effort. Joe Bongiorno drove the
4-year-old Muscle Mass entire for owners Blair and Erna Corbeil and new trainer
Richard Johnson.
Total handle for the 13-race program was
$2,466,612.
Live racing returns to The Meadowlands
on Thursday (December 22) evening, with a $25,874.24 carryover buoying the Pick
5 sequence which spans the first five races of the program. First post is 7:15
p.m. Eastern.
