After a septet of two-year-old qualifiers at The Meadows on Friday morning, the spotlight was on the freshmen in baby races at The Meadowlands and Mohawk Racetrack on Saturday morning.
Race one at The Meadowlands saw Lifetime Pursuit, a homebred Cantab Hall filly from Queen Of Grace finish off a 1:57.2 mile with a :56.2 final half. Yannick Gingras drove this impressive lass for Jimmy Takter.
Takter himself drove the winner of race two. That one is the well-bred Donato Hanover - Solveig filly Shake It Cerry, bred and owned by the Solveig Racing Partners. She debuted with a 2:01.3 mile.
It was Takter and Gingras again with Father Patrick in the third. The Cantab Hall brother to Pastor Stephen just roared by foes in 2:01, with his last quarter in the 27 range under no encouragement.
Race four went right to the wire with the Chocolatier gelding Sweet Saviour (Brad Kramer) and Nuncio, an Andover Hall colt (Kevin Oscarsson) finishing together in 2:00.4. Sweet Saviour, owned by Kramer with Seidel and Mac Arthur, won by a scant nose.
Brian Sears was in to drive John Grasso's Expressive Action to a 2:03.1 win in race 5 before the pacers took over in race 6.
Instant Respect gained just that with an easy 1:58.1 score for the Brittany, Takter, Gingras combo. She is a big, pretty Art Major filly from Monkeys Can Sing.
Always B Miki looked great for trainer Joe Holloway and owner/breeder Roll The Dice Stables in race 7. Dave Miller drive the winner to a 1:56.1 win with the final half in 55 seconds.
The last race saw the Somebeachsomewhere half brother to Well Said, So Surreal, win impressively in 1:55.4 with a 26.1 final panel. Jordan Stratton drove for trainer Ray Schnittker who owns the colt with Ted Gewertz, JD Kumit and Steve Arnold.
To view the charted results from Meadowlands' Saturday baby races, click the following link: Saturday Results - Meadowlands Baby Races.
North of the border at Mohawk, driver Chris Christoforou continued to find the wire first at a torrid pace. After a five-bagger on Friday night, Christoforou teamed with trainer David Menary for three winning qualifiers on Saturday morning.
The duo clicked with Somebaysomewhere in the first, closing in :28.1 to score in a time of 2:02 over the "good" track given one second allowance. James Bafia of Minooka and Eugene White of Chicago, IL own the Mach Three - Wondrous Grace filly.
In Race 3, Christoforou and Menary connected again with Hes Watching - who certainly will be watched from here on out after serving notice with a 1:56.4 win, punctuated with a sizzling :26.1 final quarter. Just a $3,000 Harrisburg purchase, Menary co-owns the American Ideal - Baberhood colt with Brad Gray of Dundas and Michael Guerriero of Moffat, Ont.
The hat-trick was completed in Race 6 with King Royalty, a winner in 2:03.3. Menary and Guerriero own the Classic Card Shark - Royal Lady Les colt, a $5,500 Forest City purchase.
Also winning qualifiers on Saturday morning were a pair of trotting colts from the Eddie Green Stable - Century Amadeus (Federal Flex-Allison Hall) in 2:05 and Valorscross (Cornaro Dasolo-Poppea) in 2:04.1.
The full brother to the speedy Mach Of Ballykeel, Boomboom Ballykeel also qualified on Saturday morning with breeder-owner-trainer Cam McKnight at the controls. The Mach Three colt tripped the timer in 2:00.4.
For full charted results from Mohawk's baby races, click the following link: Saturday Results - Mohawk Baby Races.