The trip was anything but smooth, but leading driver Brett Beckwith found the right path to guide Galante A to victory lane on Saturday, Sept. 12 at The Meadowlands in the co-featured mid-level conditioned pace for one of his five wins on the night, and one of three for trainer Shaun Vallee.

“He shouldn’t have been 12-1 as he always gives a good effort,” said Beckwith. “I really like him. He tries.”

Buried along the inside down the backstretch, Galante A advanced steadily along the rail to the half but still found himself in the four-hole at the five-eighths. Heading onto the far turn, Beckwith found a seam and moved Galante A into a fourth-over flow before quickly shifting to the centre of the track. From there, the Vallee trainee exploded home to catch the game leader, Xpert (Jonathan Ahle), and go on to a three-quarter-length win in 1:50.3. Xpert was second with Master Charles A (Keith Torro) third.

“You have to stay after him,” said Beckwith of Galante A. “Shaun’s a really good trainer. Obviously, the trip was a little more cautious but there was a lot going on. He usually gives you a pretty good kick home.”

An 11-year-old gelded son of Art Major-Escovedo, Galante A has won seven times in 2026 from 28 starts for owners Vallee and John Moderack. Lifetime, he’s won 30 of 183 outings and banked $355,674.

Sent to the gate as the eighth choice in the field of 10, Galante A returned $27.20 to his backers.

Other winning Vallee trainees were Midnight Thunder ($3.80) — also a tally for Beckwith — and Midnight Lightning ($10.60), driven by Brad Chisholm. Vallee is the sole owner on the latter and co-owns the former with D P V Racing Stable. The conditioner nearly doubled his seasonal tally to seven wins from 56 starts.

Beckwith's remaining wins came with Supergirl Molly ($3.60) and Moving On Over ($3) for trainer Petter Engblom and Bet On Mac ($3.60) for Sam De Pinto. The reinsman also had four seconds from 14 drives. He leads the Big M standings with 127 wins, 21 more than second-placed Joe Bongiorno.

Dale Yeah took the co-featured $20,833 high-end conditioned pace in a lifetime-best 1:49 for trainer Kirsten Proctor and driver Vinny Ginsburg. The five-year-old gelded son of Tellitlikeitis-Mystical Victress returned $5.20 as the 8-5 second choice. 

All-source handle on the 15-race program totalled $2,334,139.

Harness racing now takes a four-week break and will return on Oct. 17. Thoroughbred turf racing comes to the Big M for the next four weeks, with live action on Friday and Saturday evenings with a post time of 7 p.m.

(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)