After winning both legs one and two, Melanies Fran, Shoshie Deo and Hypnotic Tale all completed natural hat tricks at the Meadowlands Friday night by taking their respective $75,000 New Jersey Sire Stakes finals for three-year-olds.

Melanies Fran, a gelded son of Hypnotic Blue Chip-Natalie, had the easiest road to his pacing colts and geldings championship, having to defeat only Hypnotico in all three NJSS dashes. He won by nine lengths Friday in a non-betting race in 1:56.3 for driver David Miller and trainer Kevin McDermott.

Shoshie Deo (Wishing Stone-Fortune Dream) took the colts and geldings trot in 1:57.3 for driver George Brennan and trainer DeWayne Minor by one and a half lengths over Brutal Storm. Paging Doctor Teo was third.

As the 3-5 public choice, Shoshie Deo paid $3.40.

David Miller, who drove four winners on the betting card in addition to the non-bettor, guided the Linda Toscano-trained Hypnotic Tale to a two and a quarter-length victory over Cruzinforavictory in 1:54 in the filly pace. Hurrikane Empress was third.

A daughter of Hypnotic Blue Chip-Born Storyteller, Hypnotic Tale returned $2.80 as the 2-5 public choice.

Samis Rolin Stone was sent to the gate as the 1-5 public choice in her bid for a Sire Stakes sweep of the filly trot, but was gunned down in deep stretch by 21-1 chance Take A Wish (Wishing Stone-Take A Taste) and driver Steve Smith by a half-length in 1:55.2. Diamondstone Us finished third.

The winner paid $45.60 and is trained by Dawn Anderson.

FRIDAY’S FREQUENT FAVOURITES: Over the last three Friday programs, aided by a plethora of short fields, post-time choices have won 17 of 30 races (57 per cent).

A LITTLE MORE: Due to a lackluster entry box, betting was down precipitously – 28.5 per cent – from the comparable card last year. The corresponding program from a year ago saw 93 horses participate on the program, and the result was an average of 8.5 starters per race for 11 races, with a total wager of $2,420,244. Friday night, only 75 horses (a 19 per cent drop from 2017) competed on the 10-race card, an average of 7.5 starters per race, which included two four-horse fields and one five-horse field in the NJSS events. The total bet was $1,730,280. … After failing to result in a single-ticket winner, the carryover for the Late 20-cent Jackpot Super High-Five inched closer to a quarter of a million dollars. The pot now stands at $244,313. … Racing resumes at the Big M Saturday at 7:15 p.m.

(Meadowlands Racetrack)