Silent Crossing came from off the pace to score in 1:52 in the $17,000 feature on Friday night at The Meadowlands, a non-winners of $12,500 for fillies and mares on the pace.
“She is a hard-trying mare that appreciated the acclimating mile [when third with better foes] last week,” said winning driver Tyler Miller.
Silent Crossing, a four-year-old daughter of Captaintreacherous-Freedom Crossing, sat a pocket trip most of the way, but had to race wide to escape some traffic in mid-stretch before going on to a 1-1/4-length score over 5-2 favourite Probert.
“When we found room in the lane, she knew it was time to go and she paced through the wire for the win," said Miller.
Trained and co-owned by Blake MacIntosh, Silent Crossing returned $12.40 to win as the 5-1 fourth choice in the betting. She’s now won 13 of 66 lifetime outings and earned more than $200,000 for MacIntosh and partner Hutt Racing.
With a sequence that had five consecutive favourites score starting in the second leg, it appeared that the 20-cent Pick-8 would finally yield a winning ticket at The Meadowlands on Friday night.
But as it turned out, after 5-1 shot Silent Crossing took the 10th race, the Pick-8 was assured of carrying over for an eighth consecutive race card without having to see who won the 11th dash.
Those with seven winning selections cashed in for $994.12.
The carryover for Saturday is sure to stir a lot of interest for big and small players alike, as a total of $84,673 will be in the pool before any “new money” is put in play.
“This is the type of excitement we were hoping for when we added the Pick-8 to our betting menu,” said Jason Settlemoir, Big M Chief Operating Officer and General Manager. “The total pool on Saturday night will be well over $100,000 with a huge negative takeout, the type of scenario that multi-leg players go for in a big way. If we attract $40,000 in new money, players will be betting into a pool that will return just under 300 per cent in the event that there are winning tickets.”
The Pick-8 sequence spans races four through 11. Free past performances for every race of every Meadowlands race card are available by going to playmeadowlands.com.
Five drivers tied atop the leaderboard with two winners apiece on the card. They were Miller, Marvin Luna, Johnathan Ahle, Braxten Boyd and John MacDonald.
MacDonald, Tony Alagna and Michael Meza each trained a pair to victory lane.
All-source wagering totalled $3,038,713, the first time betting has topped $3 million on a Friday since Sept. 8. Overall, the $3-million barrier has been busted 58 times this year from 86 race cards.
Live action resumes on Saturday at 6:20 p.m.
(With files from The Meadowlands)