One week after a dazzling pari-mutuel debut, Newsroom came back to stay perfect in two seasonal starts taking one of nine $20,000 divisions of the first leg of the Kindergarten Series for two-year-olds at The Meadowlands on Friday night.
Newsroom, who won a Tompkins-Geers split last week, went after early leader Swifty Lazar at the quarter, took the lead away from that one shortly thereafter, and went down the road from there for trainer Joe Holloway in the first of two divisions for colt and gelding pacers.
The 2-5 favourite, a son of Always B Miki-Well Hello There, paid $2.80 after stopping the clock in 1:51, a North American season's record for freshmen on the pace. It was 2-3/4 lengths back to second-place finisher Swifty Lazar.
“He’s a pretty nice horse,” said winning driver Dave Miller. “I figured we’d go ahead and let him roll along [on the lead]. He gets like two weeks off now. He’s coming along just the way you want him too. I’m real excited about him. He’s a big, strong horse who doesn’t seem to get tired.”
Another impressive performance on the card was supplied by 6-5 favourite Tandem Hanover (Walner-Think Twice), who won the first of three filly trots in 1:54.2 in her pari-mutuel debut for trainer Andrew Harris.
The $510,000 Harrisburg purchase led at every call and used a :27.1 final quarter to defeat Prominence (who was later disqualified and placed sixth) by three lengths. Tandem Hanover paid $4.40 to win.
“The owners [William Pollock, Bruce Areman and Andrew Harris Racing] put some money up and it seems like they have a pretty special filly,” said winning driver Andy McCarthy. “She’s pretty professional about everything. I put her on the front at [Harrah’s Philadelphia] in her first start [qualifying]. Then we raced her off the pace in last, but tonight, I figured we’d see what she’s made of.”
The winners of the three colt and gelding trots were Classic Landing (Tactical Landing-Classical Annie) for driver Yannick Gingras and trainer Ron Burke in 1:54.4 as the 7-5 second choice; Robinhood (Walner-Confession Session) for Niko Karna and Noel Daley in 1:55 at odds of 105-1, by far the longest shot on the board; and Bargain (Chapter Seven-Batoutahill) for McCarthy and Nancy Takter in 1:56.4 as the 8-5 second choice.
The other two filly trots were taken by Cheval Rapide (Father Patrick-Shake It Cerry) for Gingras and Takter in 1:56.3 as the 4-5 favourite and Internationalmodel (International Moni-Flying Glider) for Scott Zeron and Domenico Cecere in 1:56.3 as the 3-2 public choice.
On the pacing side, Captain Albano (Captaintreacherous-Angelou) won the other male pace for Todd McCarthy and Daley in 1:53.1 as the 1-2 chalk while Miraculous Deo (Stay Hungry-Worldly Beauty) was victorious in the lone filly pace as Todd McCarthy and Daley struck again, this time as 29-1 outsiders.
Daley had a big night, training three winners on the program while Takter had a pair. Miller, Andy McCarthy, Todd McCarthy and Gingras all drove a pair to victory lane.
Gabe Prewitt was up to his usual tricks, hitting the Early Pick-4 to the tune of $1,690 to take Night 11 of the track’s “Battle of The Meadowlands Masterminds” handicapping contest.
All-source handle totalled $2,517,297 on the 14-race program.
Racing resumes Saturday at 6:20 p.m. Two Graduate Series finals plus two eliminations for the $668,000 Meadowlands Pace are the featured events.
(Meadowlands Racetrack)