Meadowlands Media Relations
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – In what is now
“the new normal”, many students have been schooling at home, but some horses
who want to qualify for next week’s Kindergarten Classic Finals at The
Meadowlands will have to be in class Friday (Oct. 30) night at the mile oval
and do well in the series’ fourth and final leg if they are to make it to the
culminating big-money exams.
The event for 2-year-olds will have a
total of six divisions on the Friday night program for horses of each sex and
gait trying to earn enough points based on where they finish to qualify for one
of four finals – with purses totaling $800,000 – that take place on Saturday,
Nov. 7.
WHO WILL WEAR THE CROWNS? This weekend, 12 Breeders Crown
Finals will settle many year-end divisional-honor scores at Indiana’s Hoosier
Park.
The Crown will be offered at The
Meadowlands on its simulcast network where the four finals for 2-year-olds will
head to the gate Friday night while the four events for 3-year-olds and four
more for older horses take place on Saturday. Post time for both 15-race cards
is 6 p.m.
The list of stars who will be on
display include eight horses in this week’s Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown
Standardbred Top 10 Poll: Tall Dark Stranger, Party Girl Hill, Atlanta,
Gimpanzee, Perfect Sting, Kissin In The Sand, Bettor’s Wish and Shartin N.
Many Breeders Crown performers will
be at The Big M on Nov. 21 for Fall Final Four/TVG Finals Night.
That evening, 2-year-olds will be in
the spotlight as the Governor’s Cup (colt pace), Three Diamonds (filly pace),
Valley Victory (colt trot) and Goldsmith Maid (filly trot) makeup the Fall
Final Four, with total purses of about $1.8 million.
Year-end divisional honors – as well
as Horse of the Year – could be determined by what happens in the four TVG
Finals, which are the Mares Trot, Open Trot, Mares Pace and Open Pace, a
fabulous foursome which will see just over $1 million get doled out.
IT’S A SURE THING: Guaranteed pools will make their
return to the Meadowlands next weekend.
Three of the track’s most popular
wagers will once again offer promises of a large pot while continuing to have a
low 15 percent takeout.
Effective on Friday, Nov. 6, the
first race 20-cent Pick-5 will offer a guaranteed pool of $50,000. Another
$90,000 in promised green will be up for grabs in the mile track’s popular
50-cent Pick-4 bets, with $50,000 the starting point on races six through nine
and $40,000 in the hat on races 10 through 13.
LAST WEEK: Friday (Oct. 23) night’s GSY (Gural
Settlemoir Yarock) Series race was won by the Mark Silva-trained and driven
Dramatic Point, who lit up the board at odds of 46-1, creating giant payoffs in
the win ($94.80), Exacta ($1,550.80), Trifecta ($19,303.20) and 10-cent
Pentafecta ($16,626.60) pools.
A two-day carryover led to a total
pool of over $41,000 in the 20-cent Pick-6 Saturday (Oct. 24) night and after a
sequence that saw none of the horses’ odds reach 8-1, the payoff was a handsome
$9,225.
The top drivers over the course of
the 26-race weekend were George Napolitano Jr. (five winners) and Todd McCarthy
(four).
CUP RUNNETH OVER: Keeneland Race Course in Lexington,
KY is the site for the 2020 Breeders’ Cup World Championships, which will begin
with five events on Friday, Nov. 6 and conclude on Saturday, Nov. 7 with nine
more races, the last of which is the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.
The first Breeders’ Cup race on
Friday is scheduled for 2:30 p.m., while Saturday’s opener goes at 12:02 p.m.
The Classic has a post time of 5:13 p.m.
FREE PPs: For free past performances of
Meadowlands races, courtesy of the United States Trotting Association and
TrackMaster, go to playmeadowlands.com,
where one can access races nine through 13 for both Friday and Saturday. Those
races include the 20-cent Late Pick-5, 50-cent Late Pick-4 and 10-cent Late
Pentafecta, not to mention the Late Daily Double.
TWEET THE TEAM: Stay in touch on Twitter with the Big
M’s Dave Brower (@eedoogie), Dave Little (@DaveLittleBigM), Ken Warkentin
(@kenvoiceover), Andrew Demsky (@shadesonracing) and Jessica Otten
(@JessicaOtten1). Check in everyday for Meadowlands news and updates at those
handles, as well as @TheMeadowlands and #playbigm.
CHECK OUT THE PICKS: For those who need to get a leg up on
the action, go to playmeadowlands.com
to see track oddsmaker and analyst Brower’s selections and commentary. Click on
this link to check out Friday’s card: http://playmeadowlands.com/RaceReviews.aspx?racedt=10/30/2020.
Additionally, track announcer
Warkentin’s blog is available on the site and offers his picks and analysis.
On race nights, access picks and
plays from the Big M TV team at #playbigm or at @TheMeadowlands.
Speaking of picks, Otten picked best
bet winners on both Friday and Saturday night last week with neither horse
going as the favorite. Dontpassme Hanover ($6.40) was her Friday night winner
before War Dan A ($5.40) scored on Saturday.
CHECK OUT THE SHOW: As always look for the “Racing from
The Meadowlands” live in-house simulcast show every Friday and Saturday night.
It begins at 6:42 p.m. First race is at 7:15 p.m.
If you want to watch all the action
at home, go to rtn.tv or your favorite ADW platform
to catch every race live.
GET YOUR FOOTBALL ACTION: Now that the favored Los Angeles
Dodgers have won the World Series in six games over the pesky Tampa Bay Rays
for their first championship since 1988, it is time to go deep handicapping and
wagering on college and professional football at the Big M’s FanDuel
Sportsbook.
You can watch and wager on all the
NFL and college action, as well as other sports, when the book is open for
business from 10 a.m. – midnight Sunday through Friday and from 10 a.m. – 2
a.m. on Saturday.
