It was a perfect Saturday morning for qualifiers at The Meadowlands with sunny skies, a slight cross breeze and temperatures hovering around 20°C. The track was rated as fast when the races began at 10:00 am.

Hannelore Hanover, winning at The Meadowlands

Hannelore Hanover is back! The 2017 Dan Patch and O'Brien Award winning Horse of the Year and triple millionaire made her 2019 debut an impressive winning one over current “Road to the Hambletonian” list topper Gimpanzee (Brian Sears).

Settled in fifth through the early poles, Hannelore Hanover had advanced to third via a few breakers by the 1:25.4 third panel, fanned wide and engaged the leading Gimpanzee then prevailed on the wire in 1:53 with a :26.4 final quarter under her own power. Super Schissel (Scott Zeron) was right in between the top pair in third. Ron Burke trains Hannelore Hanover for his interests as Burke Racing, Weaver Bruscemi, Frank Baldachino and J&T Silva. Joe Bongiorno picked up the drive this morning.

Beautiful Sin was ultra-impressive this morning, not only beating a field of quality male rivals but doing so authoritatively. Driver Tim Tetrick moved the Muscle Hill lass first over from fourth as they passed the :59.2 half and brushed past the leader Gerry (Marcus Melander) through the :29.1 third panel, leaving the boys behind with a :27 close to the 1:55.3 mile. Gerry stayed on for second while White Tiger (Sears) was a rated third. Lennart Agren’s S R F Stable owns Beautiful Sin, who at $480,000 was the highest priced yearling of 2017, and Per Engblom trains.

Trainer Domenico Cecere brought a string of Lindy Farms three-year-old trotting colts in for their first foray of the new season and drove the Chapter Seven colt Refi to a front-stepping 1:56.2 win under wraps over stablemate Signor Cardin (Sears). Wing Suit (Zeron) was comfortably third. Refi is owned by Lindy Farms and Bob Rudolph.

Sophomore pacing colts came around next and a pair of trainer Tony Alagna’s Captaintreacherous colts finished 1-2 with Captain McKee (Tetrick) prevailing from the pocket in 1:52.3 over mile-cutter Captain Cash (Andy McCarthy) with Magic Joe Lindy (Zeron) third. Brittany Farms, Marvin Katz, Brad Grant and Captain Trevor Racing own the winner.

Another round of Captains swept the first three spots in the next race with Latissimus Hanover (Tetrick) leading throughout under restraint and holding Captain Ahab (McCarthy) and Shipshape (Matt Krueger) at bay in 1:51.1. Trainer Ray Schnittker owns the speedy colt, listed at 40-1 in TROT Magazine's 2019 Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book, with Mary Kinsey Arnold and Ted Gewertz.

O'Brien Award winner Tall Drink Hanover (McCarthy) completed the “Captain sweep” for the sophomore pacers, winning handily in 1:51.4 under complete wraps with a :27.1 closer. Key West (Tetrick) was a good second. Alagna trains both and owns the winner as Alagna Racing along with Marvin Katz and Riverview Racing (Stephanie & Myron Bell).

Western Joe was pacing out of his skin through a :26.1 end to a 1:50.1 mile this morning, looking like he’s ready to roll after his third qualifier of the season. He tracked Shnitzledosomethin (Tetrick) throughout and roared past that rival under some Zeron rousing in the stretch. Chris Choate trains the 2018 Sam McKee Memorial winner for Anthony Ruggeri and Joe Tosies.

It’s a huge night at The Meadowlands with Graduate Series trotters on the track and BeerFest in the Back Yard. Live harness racing gets started at 7:15 p.m.

To view the charted results from Saturday's qualifying session, click the following link: Saturday Results - Meadowlands (Qualifiers).

(Meadowlands)