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Saturday, April 10, 2021

FRIDAY BOMB SETS UP EXPLOSIVE SATURDAY AT BIG M


By Dave Little, Meadowlands Media Relations

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – When longshot Lotus Seelster lit up the tote board in Friday night’s 13th race at The Meadowlands, handicappers no doubt got right to work on the Saturday program given the opportunities that await.

The 83-1 shot, driven by Simon Allard and trained by Mark Capone, paid $168.20 to win, and in the process, set up a pair of tantalizing carryovers for Saturday’s card.

No one had a winning ticket on the 20-cent Pick-6, creating a carryover of $9,019. Those with five correct collected $85.90. The 10-cent Hi-5/Pentafecta also went unhit, as no one had the winning combination of 9-1-3-10-4, resulting in a carryover of $32,103.

Free program pages for the Saturday card – as well as every Big M program – are available by going to the track’s website, playmeadowlands.com.

A FABULOUS FRIDAY: Thus far in 2021, handle numbers have been superb at The Meadowlands, and that trend continued Friday night, as the Big M saw its biggest night of wagering this year on a Friday as all-source betting totaled $3,237,137 on the 13 races.

The sixth race served as the catalyst for yet another $3 million night of betting, the 19th out of 28 cards this year, as a total of $383,474 was put in play, $104,470 of that in the Early 50-cent Pick-4. The eighth race took in a total of $305,550 before the 10th race saw $295,705 of action, with $94,445 of that bet on the Late 50-cent Pick-4.

‘ART’ WINS ANOTHER: Preppy Art was claimed by trainer Kyle Spagnola for $12,500 last week and paid immediate dividends to his connections by crushing his foes in the second leg of the GSY Series on the pace.

The 9-year-old gelded son of Art Colony-Electric Smile was clear of the field by 4¾ lengths at the conclusion of a season’s-best 1:53.2 mile. As the 9-5 second choice, Preppy Art returned $5.80 after using a huge brush down the backside when called upon by driver Robert Hechkoff to win for the fourth time in his last five starts.

THE KIDS ALRIGHT: Tyler (T.J.) Miller made his parents proud by winning twice on the card. The 23-year-old son of Andy and Julie Miller guided Gottalovemyshadow (race eight, $12.40 to win) and Bettor Notbitter A (race 12, $7.80) to victory lane to up his numbers at the meeting to four wins from just 23 starts (17 percent).

Both of Miller’s victories were with horses trained by Edwin Quevedo, who finished the night with three victories.

A LITTLE MORE: Mark MacDonald and Scott Zeron joined Miller with two driving victories apiece. … Chalk players took it on the chin, as for a second consecutive card only two public choices went to the winner’s circle. Favorites have won just four times over the last 26 races (15 percent). … Racing resumes Saturday at 6:20 p.m.