East Rutherford, NJ -
The Saturday night feature is a seven horse $20,000 Preferred Pace where a pair
of names synonymous with success at the sport's highest level will join forces
for the first time as the owner and trainer of #6 Awesomeness. Making his first
start stateside after a lengthy campaign north of the border, Awesomeness is
also making his debut for Brett Pelling who is conditioning the 5-year-old for
owner Martin Scharf.
Scharf's greatest
success was with his champion Gallo Blue Chip who retired in 2005 as the top
money winning pacer in history with over $4.25 million, having won virtually
every major stake including the 2000 Meadowlands Pace and North America Cup.
The old horse is fondly remembered each year by the "Gallo Blue Chip Scholarship Fund" presented by
Scharf at The
Meadowlands to aspiring students
with harness racing connections.
Marty also has a
serious rooting interest in a thoroughbred earlier in the day with a stake in
second choice Sharp Azteca going in the $16 million Pegasus stakes at
Gulfstream Park.
Brett Pelling dominated the spot for
over a decade before returning to his native New Zealand in 2006. Pelling is the only trainer to have recorded 12 straight
million-dollar Meadowlands seasons and 21 in all while winning virtually every pacing classic over that span. The
list of top horses in his care reads like a Hall of Fame roster, led by a pair
of great racehorses that became great sires in the father-son duo of Western
Ideal and Rocknroll Hanover.
Brett returned to the US last winter
and has slowly been assembling a stable, racing a few mid-level types over the
summer then including some yearling purchases that are currently taking their
early training lessons with an eye toward the 2018 Grand Circuit stakes.
This mantle of representing such
imposing accomplishment, for now at least, falls squarely on the shoulders of
Awesomeness who picked up $164,368 in a solid if unspectacular campaign last season
and will embark from post 6 for the meet's top driver Jimmy Marohn, Jr. on
Saturday.
In the building, the battle is on this Saturday, January 27 in Meadowlands
Racing & Entertainment’s 3rd annual Homestyle Chili Cook Off! 38 contestants are
competing for the $1,000 grand prize plus a spot in the International Chili
Society’s World Championship cook-off in Reno, Nevada.
Last
year’s Meadowlands winner, Joseph Callahan, went on to win the 2017
International Chili Society’s World Championship for his Homestyle chili and
took home the $4,000 top prize. Fans are invited to taste the entries and
encouraged to support their favorites.
Post
time is 6:35 p.m.
