Sir Pinocchio authored a fairy-tale season for Carolyn and Irv Atherton in 2024. Their homebred male trotter won 10 times in stakes action — including the MGM Yonkers Trot, Matron Stakes, Dexter Cup and New York Sire Stakes championship — on his way to $876,707 in earnings.

Now a four-year-old, Sir Pinocchio will make his 2025 stakes debut Saturday (May 17) when he faces 10 older rivals in the Grade 3 $158,000 USD Arthur J. Cutler Memorial at The Meadowlands. Sir Pinocchio is the lone four-year-old in the field.

“We’re very excited,” Irv Atherton said about Sir Pinocchio’s upcoming campaign. “Last year, we were living the dream. That’s about as best as I can tell you. We looked forward to watching him from week to week, and he was just super and kept getting better. It was such an exuberant feeling.

“We’re looking forward to another nice year with him. We’re just the little guys coming along. Hopefully, we can live a second dream.”

Sir Pinocchio, who ranked fourth in earnings among all three-year-old male trotters last year, received the USTA District 8 Horse of the Year Award at the Monticello-Goshen Chapter of the U.S. Harness Writers Association’s annual awards banquet in December.

Also at the banquet, Carolyn received the Cradle of the Trotter Breeders Award, and Irv received the Amy Bull Crist Distinguished Service Award for his decades devoted to the sport and Goshen Historic Track. Sir Pinocchio’s trainer, Ed Hart, garnered the chapter’s highest honour, its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Overall last season, Sir Pinocchio and driver Jason Bartlett finished no worse than second in 15 of 17 races, winning 11. For his career, the son of Mets Hall-Lady Cromwell has 13 victories and 20 top-three finishes in 25 starts, with $926,176 in purses.

“His mental attitude is unbelievable,” Irv Atherton said. “He just hates losing. He gives you a thrill a moment. Even when he loses, he gives you a thrill because he doesn’t give up easily.”

The Cutler Memorial is the season’s first Grand Circuit event for older trotters. Sir Pinocchio and driver Bartlett will leave from post eight in the 11-horse group. The gelding is 12-1 on the morning line. Periculum, a six-year-old stallion making his seasonal debut after banking $821,084 last year, is the 7-2 favourite for trainer Marcus Melander and driver Scott Zeron.

Sir Pinocchio has one start under his belt this season. He finished sixth last week in a winners-over handicap at The Big M.

“He came up with a little bit of sickness, but it seems like he had a good week this week,” trainer Hart said. “We’re hoping for the best. It’s a little bit different ballgame with the older horses, but he’s been a really nice horse.

“In the barn, he’s kind of laidback and takes care of himself. On the track when you get up behind the gate, he’s all horse. He can leave, he can do it from off the pace, he’s just been a very versatile horse.”

Periculum, one of two horses from the Melander Stable in the Cutler, won last year’s Maple Leaf Trot and finished second in the MGM Yonkers International, Breeders Crown, and FanDuel Open Trot championship. He will leave Saturday from post five. His stablemate, millionaire Oh Well, will go from post 10 with driver Dexter Dunn. He is 6-1.

Melander has won the Cutler twice previously, with Venerate in 2023 and Cruzado Dela Noche in 2019.

Ake Svanstedt, who has trained five Cutler winners in the past 11 years, has one starter Saturday, Get A Wish DK, who will start from post 11 in the second tier with the trainer handling the driving. He is 8-1.

Ron Burke, another two-time Cutler winning trainer, will send out three horses Saturday: Antognoni S (4-1), Chapercraz (5-1) and Lexus Kody (10-1).

The Cutler Memorial will air on Fox Sports 2 (FS2) as part of an 8-11 p.m. (EDT) broadcast that in addition to coverage from The Meadowlands will include races from Indiana’s Hoosier Park. The Cutler is race 10 on The Big M’s 14-race card.

Racing begins at 6:20 p.m. (EDT) at The Meadowlands. To view a free past performance program of Saturday's card courtesy TrackMaster and The Meadowlands, click here.

(USTA)