The elements came together perfectly for some fast times in East Rutherford, New Jersey on Friday evening. With temperatures approaching 90 degrees and a great deal of humidity, the one mile oval at The Meadowlands was lightning fast for the 12-race program.
The mile that had the grandstand buzzing came in the sixth race, upper-level condition trotting event. A field of seven accomplished trotters with plenty of class lined up behind the gate, including the prohibitive favourite Master Of Law, who was sent off as the 1-2 choice.
Master Of Law is known for his explosive late kick, but tonight would change his tactics and take control of the race as the field went past the opening quarter. From there, the five-year-old gelding would establish strong fractions of :27.2, :55.1 and 1:23.3 before turning for home with a two-length lead. World Cup was tracking from third position and Joe Bongiorno angled his trotter in the stretch, and as soon as he was shown racetrack, World Cup found another gear. Master Of Law fought back gamely and the two hit the wire together, noses apart, but the nose in front belonged to World Cup, stopping the timer in 1:50.4. Master Of Law was a game second with the mare Clementine Dream third.
World Cup won for 17th time in his career and now has earnings of $332,845. The 1:50.4 clocking was a new lifetime mark for the six-year-old son of Yankee Glide. He is owned by Carly Roman and trained by Bob Bongiorno.
Another mile that lit up the teletimer came in the first race, where the Lightning Stable's Beach Granny stormed to a 1:49 winning performance in a filly and mare condition pacing event.
Beach Granny cleared the lead past the half-mile pole in :54.1, paced a powerful :27.1 third quarter while leading the field and was able to fend off Wicked Little Minx to score in a lifetime-best performance by nearly four seconds for Scott Zeron and trainer Steve Elliot.
The 1:49 clocking was the fastest mile for any pacing mare this season, but that would only last for a few hours.
In the 11th race on the program, Hot List, coming off a blowout win at Goshen, lowered the national season’s mark for the pacing mares with a 1:48.2 performance in a condition event while rallying up the pylons to catch Monkey On My Wheel.
The win was the 27th of her career that now includes earnings of over $380,000. She was driven by John Campbell and is trained by Arnold Marks for owner Dominick Rosato.
In other action, Aldebaran Eagle took a big step on the Road to the Hambletonian with a blowout win against a strong condition trotting group in 1:52.1, a lifetime-best performance. The stakes winner as a two-year-old took over on the backstretch and never looked back, trotting home willingly in :28-seconds flat.
Aldebaran Eagle is owned by Aldebaran Park Inc. and driven by Corey Callahan for trainer Jonas Czernyson.
There were two divisions of the second leg of the Cathedra Dot Com Series for pacing mares on Friday night. The first division saw a repeat winner in Real Drama, who set a new lifetime mark winning in 1:50.4. The second division was a runaway as That Woman Hanover bottomed out the field to score by many, also in 1:50.4. The $20,000 final will take place on Friday, June 19.
At the betting windows, total handle was up nearly 10 percent, with the on-track handle up nearly 40 percent as nearly 10,000 spectators flooded the Big M oval to watch the camels and ostriches do battle.
Both 20-cent jackpot Super Hi-5 carryovers continued to grow, as the fifth race carryover swelled to $155,451 and the last race carryover now stands at $129,920.
Racing returns with a 13-race program on Saturday, with first post time at 7:15 p.m.
(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)