Jim Morrill Jr. made a decision early in the Free For All tonight at The
Meadowlands and that was to beat Golden Receiver at his own game. Reaching
the opening quarter in 26.1, Allstar Legend forced Golden Receiver into the
pocket while clicking off a 54.4 half-mile and hitting three-quarters in
1:22.3. On the far turn, Corey Callahan seemed to be asking Golden
Receiver to pick up the pace, but the response just wasn't there tonight.
Meanwhile, the early fractions didn't seem to bother Allstar Legend at all as
powered home in 26.4 while pacing on the front-end, to trip the timer in
1:49.2.
Allstar Legend won for the fourth time this year for trainer Ron Burke and owners Brittany Farms and John Cherveny.
Allstar Legend won for the fourth time this year for trainer Ron Burke and owners Brittany Farms and John Cherveny.
The Ron Burke theme continued in the 5th race, Dash For The C-Notes Final as Sky McFly put forth a powerful first over effort through fractions of 26.3, 55.3 and 1:24.2, before pacing home in 26.4 despite the first over trip, while holding off favored Stallone Blue Chip at the wire. Through 5 races the tandem of Burke and Morrill Jr. had three winners on the card.
Sky McFly is owned by Burke Racing Stable L.L.C. and Weaver Bruscemi L.L.C.
Tonight also marked the second round of The Whata Baron Pacing
Series. The first division featured a heavy favorite in round one winner
Wake Up Peter who cut the mile with Scott Zeron through fractions of 26.4, 55.1
and 1:23.1 before pacing home in 26.1 to complete the mile in 1:49.2 while
holding off a hard to steer Alexa's Jackpot who rallied off cover. For
Wake Up Peter it was his sixth win from eight starts this season for trainer
Larry Remmen and owner Bradley Grant.
The second division of The Whata Baron was another tour-de-force by Captive Audience, who duplicated his 1:49 round 1 performance to score another victory and will go for the series sweep next Saturday night. Captive Audience made a quarter move to the lead and peeled off a 54.3 half-mile before hitting three-quarters in 1:22.2 and then powering home for the win. He will head into The Whata Baron Final as the favorite for Andy Miller who guided the son of Art Major for Corey Johnson and owners Debbie Element and Mac Nichol.
Another leg of The Legends vs.
Phenoms Driver Challenge is in the books. The Legend standing tall was
Jim Morrill Jr. (96), his second win in the Challenge while Scott Zeron (95)
led The Phenoms for the fourth consecutive week. With one week to go, Jim
Morrill Jr. (341), Andy Miller (315), Dave Miller (313), Corey Callahan (241),
John Campbell (247), Scott Zeron (338) and Joe Bongiorno (162) have locked up
their spots in the Final, while Steve Smith (93), Vincent Ginsburg (94), Jim
Marohn Jr. (93), Mike Wilder (91) and Eric Abbatiello (68) will battle for the
three remaining spots to battle for the $15,000 First Place Prize on April 26th.
Racing returns on Friday, with
first post time at 7:15 P.M.
