While racing remains shutdown at Woodbine Mohawk Park in Ontario, a pair of invaders from the Carmen Auciello barn swept the featured events at The Meadowlands on Saturday (Jan. 23).

Buck Dancer, who last raced on Dec. 21 at Mohawk, impressed going wire-to-wire in the $15,500 featured trot for non-winners of $11,500 in their last five starts. Andy McCarthy guided the 7-2 second choice, a five-year-old gelded son of Guccio-Shaken Not Stirred, who stopped the clock in 1:53.4.

Auciello’s Points North took the $22,500 pacing feature for non-winners of $15,000 in their last five outings. Mark MacDonald, who broke an oh-fer at the meeting with a driving double, guided the six-year-old gelded son of Somebeachsomewhere-Northwest Hanover–who was sent to the gate as the 6-1 sixth choice – to his fourth straight score after hitting the wire in 1:51.3.

The Jeff Cullipher barn is out of its early-meet slump. The Big M’s second-leading barn at the Fall Meeting equaled the “Burke Brigade’s” three wins on the Saturday card.

With real-feel temperatures that got as low as 12 degrees, it was tough to stay warm at The Meadowlands, but driver Yannick Gingras and The Big M betting faithful were unaffected by the winter chill.

The 41-year-old Gingras was scalding hot at the start of the card, winning four of the first five races. While Gingras has had many four-winner nights at the mile oval it’s hard to imagine he’s had very many with the kind of prices his followers collected Saturday.

Ollies Z Tam got Gingras’ night off to a good start with a wire-to-wire win at odds of 9-1 in the opener before 8-1 chance Big City Bud came from off the pace to complete the Gingras Early Daily Double that returned $163.40.

“The Green Hornet” guided Pogey Beach to a 10-hole score to complete a natural hat trick at odds of 11-1, before Gingras completed his grand slam with 5-2 Warrawee Unique, who went gate-to-wire in Race 5. Three of Gingras’ winners hailed from the Ron Burke barn.

All-source wagering continued to show huge Saturday night returns, as a total of $3,404,537 was put in play, marking the fourth consecutive Saturday in 2021 (and fifth straight dating back to 2020) where betting topped the $3.4-million mark. During all of last year, betting reached the $3-million plateau 11 times, only once during January.

As usual, the two Pick-4 wagers proved popular, as a total of $182,844 was put in play on the preferred puzzles.

The 20-cent Pick-6 had a carryover of just under $7,300, which led to a total pool of $36,159. The sharpies who had all half-dozen correct collected $6,365.90.

A LITTLE MORE: Simon Allard recorded his second-consecutive driving double. Dexter Dunn also won twice, giving him six winners for the weekend and 21 at the current meeting, which leads all Big M drivers. George Napolitano Jr. also guided a pair to victory lane.

Chalk players took it on the chin, as only three public choices emerged victorious on the card. Before both favourites took the Late Daily Double, only two chalks had won over a 21-race span.

Free past performances for every race of every Big M card are available by going to playmeadowlands.com.

Racing resumes Friday (Jan. 29) at 6 p.m. (EST).

(with files from The Meadowlands)