By Dave Little, Meadowlands Media
Relations
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Saturday
night at the Meadowlands served as the perfect prelude to the start of next
week’s “Championship Meet” as two series finals and two series opening legs
were contested on the 13-race program.
In the $54,500 Walner Series final
for 3-year-old colts and geldings on the trot, Goes Down Smooth was an
opportunistic winner in 1:54 for driver Tim Tetrick and trainer Ron Burke.
Final Claim, also from the Burke
barn, was the 2-5 favorite looking to stay perfect in four seasonal starts. He
turned for home with the lead but went off stride in mid-stretch, allowing Goes
Down Smooth to inherit the top. He hit the wire a neck in front of Warrior One.
Cheap Tricks was third.
Goes Down Smooth, a son of Muscle
Hill-Peach Martini, returned $8.40 to win as the second choice in the wagering.
Prince Of Tides got a great steer
from Andy Miller and won the $58,500 Wiggle It Jiggleit Series final for
3-year-old pacing colts and geldings in 1:49.4.
Dealer’s Table, the 7-5 favorite who
was impossible to rate in defeat last week, again was too hot on the front end
(hitting three-quarters in 1:21.1), enabling Miller to vacate the pocket - a
position he earned by leaving the gate at the start from post eight - and roll
by the leader before holding off a determined Stone Hanover, who missed by a
big nose after closing well late. World On Edge was third.
Prince Of Tides, a gelded son of
Somebeachsomewhere-Tug River Princess who is trained by Ross Croghan, returned
$15.80 as the third choice on the tote board.
Pinkman ($5.20 to win as the favorite),
the 2015 Hambletonian champion and lifetime earner of better than $2.7 million,
was victorious in the first leg of the Mr Muscleman for open trotters in 1:52.4
while Highalator ($5.40 as the public choice) scored in the opening leg of the
Golden Receiver for open pacers, stopping the clock in 2:03.4 for the added
distance of a mile and an eighth. HIghalator has won three of four starts at
the Big M this year.
A LITTLE MORE: 2018 Hambletonian champion Atlanta,
who now resides in the Burke barn, qualified impressively Saturday morning in
1:52.3 with new driver Yannick Gingras. She now races without the use of
trotting hobbles. Hambletonian hopeful Greenshoe was ultra-impressive, winning
in 1:54.1 under wraps with Brian Sears at the controls for trainer Marcus
Melander. Melander also has two other high-profile sophomore trotting colts in
Green Manalishi S and Gimpanzee. … All-source handle pushed past the magic
$3-million mark for the eighth time in 2019, as $3,015,228 was put in play by
the Big M faithful. … Racing resumes Friday at 7:15 p.m.
