Newsroom is writing quite a story.
The son of Always B Miki-Well Hello There put up another mile worthy of an exclusive Friday night at The Meadowlands on a card that featured 10 $20,000 divisions of the second leg of the Kindergarten Series for two-year-olds of each sex and gait.
The trip from post eight was less than smooth, but it proved to be no problem for the Joe Holloway trainee in the third of three divisions for pacing colts and geldings.
Parked out every step from the get-go, Newsroom didn’t clear the lead until just before the half, and from there, he toyed with his seven overmatched foes, hitting the wire 3-3/4 lengths in front of second-place finisher Ivy Park in 1:50.1, the fastest of the mile of the year for a two-year-old, eclipsing the previous best by three-fifths of a second.
“His strength and power are pretty impressive,” said winning driver Dave Miller. “What can you say? He went a big trip tonight. He was a little aggressive getting out of there, but once he made the lead, he relaxed. I drove him all the way through the lane, and down by the wire, he was still kicking. A typical Always B Miki. He just keeps going.”
Now three-for-three lifetime for owner Val D Or Farms, Newsroom paid $3.20 – his biggest win payout yet – after being sent to the gate as the 3-5 public choice.
The other male paces went to Rock The Captain N (Captaintreacherous-Rocknroll Arden) with driver Todd McCarthy and trainer Tony Alagna in 1:52 as the 5-2 second choice and Lou Vuitton (Sweet Lou-Shark Lightning) in 1:52.4 for Miller and Ron Burke at 4-1, also the second choice in the wagering.
The three winners in the colt and gelding trots were Winter Soldier (Face Time Bourbon-Jumalay Mass), who took his pari-mutuel debut for Andy McCarthy and Alagna in 1:53.4 as the 2-1 second choice; T C I (Cantab Hall-Nicoles Promise), who followed up a win in the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes with a 1:54.4 victory for Miller and Burke as the 2-1 second choice; and Tony Adams S (Muscle Hill-Dreamgirl Hornline) for trainer/driver Ake Svanstedt in 1:56.1 as the 6-1 fourth choice in the wagering.
In a pair of filly trotting divisions, 4-5 favourite Cheval Rapide (Father Patrick-Shake It Cerry) made it two Kindergarten wins in as many tries for Yannick Gingras and Nancy Takter in 1:54.2 while International Model (International Moni-Flying Glider) scored for Scott Zeron and Domenico Cecere in 1:55.2 as the 9-2 third choice.
Taking the two filly paces were 12-1 outsider (the fourth choice) Sarasota Hanover (Stay Hungry-Surfside Sexy), who picked up her first career win for Zeron and Linda Toscano in 1:51.4 while Pressure Cooker (Heston Blue Chip-Better Be Steamin) completed a pacing filly sweep for Zeron and Toscano, also in 1:51.4, as the second choice at 8-5.
Zeron led the driver colony with four winners on the card. Miller was next with three jaunts down victory lane. Cecere, Toscano, Burke and Alagna all had training doubles.
There were no winning tickets sold on the 20-cent Pick-6, creating a carryover of $8,531 for Saturday’s program. Free past performances for every race of every Big M card are available by going to playmeadowlands.com.
A carryover of $14,932 led to just over $150,000 in “new money” being bet into the Early 10-cent Hi-5 pool for a grand total of $165,169. Those with tickets with the winning combination of 5-9-10-2-8 cashed in for $359.27 for 10 cents despite the race being won by 3-5 favourite Yanaba.
Betting was brisk on the 14-race card at $3,028,176, the 46th time from 60 programs this year that wagering exceeded the magic $3-million mark.
Racing resumes Saturday at 6:20 p.m. Sitting atop the marquee are a pair of eliminations for both the Hambletonian and Hambletonian Oaks.
The post time for the $500,000 Hambletonian Oaks on Saturday, Aug. 5 has been changed to 3:30 p.m. Post time for the $1-million Hambletonian is unchanged at 4:45 p.m.
(Meadowlands Racetrack)