Driver Brett Beckwith and trainer Per Engblom walked away with the dash-win titles for their respective occupations at Meadowlands Racetrack's Winter-Spring-Championship Meet that concluded Hambletonian Day on Saturday. Aug. 8.

Beckwith finished with 101 wins, 10 more than runner-up Joe Bongiorno. Beckwith has now won back-to-back Winter-Spring Championship Meet crowns, and is also seeking a second straight yearly title. During 2025, Beckwith recorded 146 victories, but may have trouble equalling that number in 2026, since the 23-year-old reinsman spent two months earlier this year recovering from injuries suffered in a spill.

"I ended up with more wins this year than I did last year during the meet. I missed two months and I was just thankful that when I came back, I had the support from a lot of people, including Per," said Beckwith after the presentation.

With 54 wins, Engblom finished atop the trainer standings, racking up nine more walks down victory lane than Bongiorno, who was second best with 45.

"You've got to have the owners and you've got to have the material to work with, and you've got to work hard, stay at it, and that's what we try to do," said Engblom.

After guiding Bourbonista S (in the Vincennes), Super Chapter (John Cashman) and Apex (Hambletonian) to the winner’s circle, Dexter Dunn padded his earnings at the meeting to $3.24 million USD, tops in the driver standings. Yannick Gingras was next with $2.08 million USD.

Marcus Melander conditioned the victorious Bourbonista S, Super Chapter, Apex and Nezuko Kamado S (Hambletonian Oaks) to lift his trainer earnings to a colony best $2.42 million USD. Ron Burke finished second with $1.72 million USD.

It figures that after a Hambletonian Day of racing that was pulse pounding and breathtaking – not to mention record breaking – that The Meadowlands would ease up on the throttle some the week after. The New York Jets are at MetLife Stadium on Friday, Aug. 14 hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in an NFL pre-season game at 7 p.m., and, as a result, The Meadowlands will not offer live harness that night and race only once this week, on Saturday, Aug. 15. On Saturday afternoon, the Giants host the Minnesota Vikings, but because the game begins at 1 p.m., the track will have live action that evening. The 13-race card will start 40 minutes later than usual, at 7 p.m.

Moving forward, live harness racing at The Big M will be conducted on a Friday-Saturday basis through Sept. 12 with a first-race post time of 6:20 p.m. In addition to this Friday night, there will be no live racing Friday, Aug. 28, when the Giants and Jets faceoff at 7:30 p.m. at MetLife Stadium.

(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack; photos of Brett Beckwith and Per Engblom with Jason Settlemoir, Meadowlands Racetrack's Chief Operating Officer and General Manager)