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.
