Friday, May 4 will kick off the 2018 Meet of Champions at The Meadowlands.

Friday's feature is the sixth race, a conditioned pace for a purse of $17,500 where an accomplished field of seven pacing mares will go forth after the winner's share.

Despite showing individual sub-:27 final quarters in each of her last four past performance lines, Pat Lachance will race his good mare Penpal on Lasix for the first time tonight. Known as a deep closer, Penpal has drawn post two for tonight's race and should benefit from the field size of seven. Pat trains and drives and owns the mare in partnership with M&M Harness Racing of N.Y.

It is, of course, Kentucky Derby weekend and the fun starts at 9:30 a.m with the day-long production on Saturday around the first leg of the Triple Crown. There are contests a plenty, buffets in every room and free wagers on the big race.

The popular Horse Play promotion returns with the Friday card as well.

The live harness racing program on Saturday brings with it the first Grand Circuit stakes of 2018 at The Meadowlands, the Arthur Cutler Memorial and first leg of the Graduate Series for pacers.

Horizontal wager guarantees are in place and the Jackpot Super Hi-5 carry over has grown to $208,090 and free program pages for the wager may be downloaded here.

Post time on Friday and Saturday for the live racing is 7:15 p.m.

(with files from The Meadowlands)