By Dave Little, Meadowlands Media Relations
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – Just call them
“The Road Warriors”.
With things at a standstill at their
home track due to a COVID-19 shutdown, a pair of horses who call Woodbine
Mohawk Park home ruled The Meadowlands Saturday night as trotter It’s Academic
and pacer Sintra scored in the co-featured $30,000 Preferreds.
It’s Academic benefited from a
third-place, once-over-the-track effort from a week ago to score in 1:51.3. The
4-year-old son of Uncle Peter-Annapolis was sent to the gate as the 3-2 second
choice in the betting and on a typical night that favored speed, left quickly from
post five in the eight-horse field and led at every call through fractions of
:26.3, :56.3 and 1:24.4 on the way to recording his 15th win from
just 30 lifetime starts.
Scirocco Rob, the 6-5 favorite,
challenged the eventual winner at the three-quarter-mile mark, but was put away
off the far turn as It’s Academic rolled to a convincing 3-length score.
Scirocco Rob finished second with Buck Dancer third.
A Ron Burke trainee who is owned by
Brad Grant, It's Academic returned $5.00 to win in lifting his lifetime
earnings to $493,188.
“It just did not really work out last
week when he got shuffled,” said winning driver Yannick Gingras. “Tonight, he
proved he’s a nice horse. He can leave super-fast and he can go :26 [to the
quarter], so I was able to get a good second-quarter breather [of :30]. He was
full of trot late.”
Sintra was nothing short of
scintillating in overcoming post 10 to score in 1:48.4. The 8-year-old gelded
son of Mach Three-Dancin Barefoot left hard from the outside in the 10-horse
field and got a spot fourth at the rail out of the first turn.
The 8-5 favorite came first-over at
the five-eighths and made his way toward leader American History, who blazed
fractions of :54.4 to the half and 1:21.4 at three-quarters after wrestling
control away from the early leader, 5-2 second choice Ana Afreet N, at the
three-eighths.
Continuing to chip away at the
leader’s edge, Sintra, who paid $5.40 to win, grabbed the front with less than
an eighth to go before holding off a fast-closing-along-the-inside Ana Afreet N
by a neck in 1:48.4. American History held third.
Driven by Todd McCarthy and trained
by Brett Pelling, Sintra not only overcame the outside post but also a 27-day
layoff to register his 36th career victory from 83 starts. His
earnings now stand at $1,150,360 for owners Michael Guerriero, Kelly Waxman,
Nunzio Vena and Frank Cirillo.
“I was concerned with where he was
going to be at,” said McCarthy, whose hot hands guided five winners on the
card. “You try to be as conservative as you can. I knew we’d have to go
first-over at some stage. He showed his class tonight. I was a little worried
as to how much we had left [in the stretch] but he got there.”
SPEEDY SORTS: Last Saturday, the Jennifer
Bongiorno-trained Nicholas Beach rocked the clock to the tune of 1:48.2 to
become the second fastest performer of the year in harness racing. Last night,
her Stars Align A became the fastest horse of the year, recording a 1:48 clocking
in the seventh race high-end conditioned pace, besting Let It Ride N’s Jan. 2
mile time of 1:48.1. All three miles took place at The Big M.
AN EARLY START: Before the beginning of the betting
card, there were two non-betting divisions of the New Jersey Breeders Maturity
contested for 4-year-olds on the trot.
In the $12,500 event for mares, 2020
New Jersey Sire Stakes champion Ab’sattitudexpress went wire-to-wire for
trainer Lucas Wallin and driver Tim Tetrick in 1:54.2. The daughter of
Trixton-Abbie’sgotattitude sprinted home in :26.1 to best her only opponent,
Spoiled Princess, by 2¾ lengths.
The Ake Svanstedt-trained and driven
Back Of The Neck, who won a division of the 2020 Stanley Dancer, proved best of
five horses in the $15,000 split for horses and geldings in 1:55.4 after
leading at every call. The son of Ready Cash-Big Barb hit the wire two lengths
in front of Play Trix On Me, the NJSS champion from a year ago.
A LITTLE MORE: There were no winning tickets sold in
the 20-cent Pick-6, setting up a carryover of $9,992. Those with five correct
collected $64.00. … For those who want to jump into what no doubt will be a big
Pick-6 pool Friday night, free past performances for every race of every
Meadowlands card are available by going to playmeadowlands.com.
… All-source wagering was typically strong for a Saturday at $3,552,966, the
eighth straight program to see betting of over $3 million. … Racing resumes
Friday at 6:20 p.m.
