This Saturday night (June 13) the Meadowlands Racetrack will host a 13-race card that will be highlighted by a trio of second-leg divisions of the Caramore Pacing Series.
Caramore was the star of an emerging New Jersey Sire Stakes program in the early 1980s. The series named in his honour welcomes Freehold Raceway horsepeople to race at the Meadowlands while their home track is closed for the summer.
Caramore was bred and owned by the late Father Thomas J. O'Connor, a larger-than-life pastor at St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church in Freehold Township. Born in Moulagow, Rathmore, County Kerry, Ireland, Father O'Connor arrived in central New Jersey in 1952 and never left.
One of Father O'Connor's great passions was the horse, and when New Jersey racing took off, he supported it by owning and breeding more than 80 horses. The best of those was Caramore (Irish for ‘big friend’) who raced 199 times from 1980 to 1988. He won 55 of those races and banked $1,129,411 in purse earnings. The son of Jolly Roger–JM Dorothy captured the 1981 New Jersey Classic with Cat Manzi driving and was named the NJ Standardbred of the Year that season.
Saturday’s Caramore dashes at the Meadowlands have been carded as Race 4, 8 and 11.
With any luck, the Hi-5 Jackpot pools will continue through live racing on Friday and will be there for punters to take a crack at on Saturday. Both carry-overs are well into six figures as the weekend begins.
First-race post time for the Meadowlands’ Saturday card is 7:15 p.m.
(With files from the Meadowlands)