Given how high-quality the driver colony is at The Meadowlands, now that the racing calendar has just passed the quarter point of the season, a picture is emerging of how some drivers are standing out in an extremely talented crowd.
Saturday (April 9) marked the 25th of a 90-program season, and while his streak of winning at least once on every card ended at 22 on the Saturday prior, no pilot has been as consistent as Yannick Gingras during 2022.
The 42-year-old, Hall of Fame-bound Quebec native has won at least once on 24 of 25 cards this year, and his total of 60 wins puts him comfortably in front of the driver colony pack. Gingras is also tops in UDRS (Universal Driver Rating System) at .347 and is second in both win percentage (22) and in-the-money percentage (49).
Joe Bongiorno is second in wins (35) and third in win percentage (19), Todd McCarthy is third in wins (29), Dexter Dunn is second in UDRS (.331), first in win percentage (23) and third in ITM percentage (46) while Tim Tetrick is third in UDRS (.304) and tops in ITM percentage (51).
Since top drivers drive top horses for top outfits, they attract the most attention at the betting windows and almost never show a flat-bet profit. In addition to what he’s done (see above) after having missed the first two months of the year vacationing, Dunn currently has a statistic that is almost impossible to attain for an entire year, as his drives currently return a positive Return On Investment (ROI). Heading into Friday’s (April 15) races, the three-time defending United States Harness Writers Association Driver of the Year is at an impressive plus-15 per cent.
Getting back to McCarthy – who guided five winners last weekend – he’s been entrusted by trainer Linda Toscano with a superstar who debuted at The Big M last Saturday. The six-year-old New Zealand-bred mare Amazing Dream N arrived at the mile oval from Australia – where she had been racing – and crushed her foes in a fillies and mares Open for pacers.
Sent to the gate as the 1-5 public choice, Amazing Dream N returned $2.40 to win after pacing a back half in :54.4 to record a 1-3/4-length win. She’s now won 25 of 49 career outings and has earnings of $1.05 million for owners Enviro Stables, R. Gutnick, T. Pontone and J. Lozito Jr.
She is expected to dance in the major aged pacing mare stakes dances during the season.
(Meadowlands)