Hambletonian hopeful Go Ahead Makemyday made his seasonal debut a winning one, taking the Friday, May 9 feature at The Meadowlands, a $24,306 high-end conditioned trot.

“He shipped down from Canada two days ago, so I didn’t want to be real, real rough on him,” said winning driver Dave Miller of the Blake MacIntosh-trained three-year-old trotting colt. “He got shuffled a bit but got the job done. He was a little tired at the wire but he did it. I just put him in position.”

Wanting to go easy on the three-year-old son of Walner-Uvie Hanover, Dave Miller asked his horse for early speed and raced in the two-hole out of the first turn as three-year-old Te Quiero Lindy (Andy Miller) led the field past the quarter in :28.1. Diplomacy (Niko Karna) was on the move first-over at this point and cleared just after the three-eighths before reaching the half in :56.

As Finite (Tyler Buter) went after the leader after following Diplomacy’s cover, Go Ahead Makemyday vacated the three-hole to pick up a live tow as Diplomacy and Finite hit three-quarters inches apart in 1:24.4.

Dave Miller swung his horse off his cover just after three-quarters and was three-wide into the stretch, and engaged the top two, before inching his way clear with a little more than a sixteenth to go on the way to a safe 1-1/4-length win in a career-best 1:53.4. Hillookin (Trond Smedshammer) was solid late to get second. Finite finished third.

“He looked a little tired at the end, but I was happy with how he raced,” said MacIntosh. “He matured over the winter. We couldn’t get a race at [Mohawk] so we had to send him down [to New Jersey] a week earlier than we wanted to. We have New Jersey Sire Stakes next week. He’ll stay in my New York barn all summer through the Hambletonian.”

Owned by MacIntosh along with Van Camp Trotting Corp. of Port Perry, Ont., Mortgage Boys Stable of Fayetteville, New York and Ozzie MacKay of Moncton, N.B., Go Ahead Makemyday upped his lifetime numbers to four wins in nine starts, good for earnings of $162,218. 

As the 7-5 favourite, he returned $4.80 to win.

Brett Beckwith led the driver colony with four winners on Friday's card to pad his lead atop the Big M standings. The 22-year-old now has 71 victories this year, 18 more than Jason Bartlett, who is currently second in the dash-win race. 

All-source handle on the 14-race card totalled $1,651,460 USD.

Racing resumes on Saturday at 6:20 p.m.  

(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)