“It’s going to be a great experience, mainly for the horse more than me. I think he deserves to be in this race. I think he’s earned it. He’s just a super great horse. It’s going to be nice to go against those horses and being at the Meadowlands for the first time. Maybe this time we’ll let him out a little bit and trot with him and see how much he can go."

Yonkers Trot winner Archangel takes the next step toward the Trotting Triple Crown on Saturday when he faces eight rivals in the third of three Hambletonian Stakes elimination divisions at Meadowlands Racetrack.

The top three finishers from each elimination division plus the fourth-place finisher with highest lifetime earnings will advance to the $1.5 million Hambletonian final on August 4 at the Meadowlands. The Hambletonian, for three-year-old trotters, is the second jewel in the Triple Crown, between the Yonkers Trot – which was won by Archangel on July 7 – and Kentucky Futurity on October 7 at Lexington’s Red Mile.

CBS Sports Network will air the Hambletonian final from 3:30-5 p.m. August 4.

Eight horses have won the Trotting Triple Crown, most recently Glidemaster in 2006.

Archangel, trained and co-owned by Peter Arrigenna, is the top money-winning three-year-old male trotter in North America this year. He has won seven of eight races this season, finished second once, and earned $428,657. Jim Morrill Jr. will drive Archangel from post seven in his elimination race for Arrigenna and fellow owners Alan Hainsworth and Clare Semer.

“I think (the draw) is pretty good,” Arrigenna said. “He can leave, he can come from behind – that’s going to be Jimmy’s decision. I leave all the driving up to him. I think he’s got a good shot. I think he’s as good as any of them in there and it’s just a matter of what kind of trip we get. Jimmy does a good job keeping him out of trouble.”

Archangel heads to the Hambletonian elims off a stakes-record 1:54.3 win in a division of the Tompkins-Geers Stakes at Tioga Downs on July 21. The colt, driven that day by Fern Paquet Jr., won by 6-1/4 lengths over New York Attitude for his seventh consecutive victory.

“He’s right on top of his game now,” Arrigenna said. “I didn’t need to do (1):52 or (1):53 (at Tioga). It was a nice tightener for him. I was very happy with the way it went.”

In the $445,594 Yonkers Trot, Archangel and Morrill led the entire mile and beat Stormin Normand, another Hambletonian hopeful, by 1-1/2 lengths in a world-record 1:54.1.

“He cut the mile there and to do it in (1):54.1 around Yonkers’ half-mile (oval) was big in my opinion,” Arrigenna said. “Stormin Normand sat behind us and they looked to come at him and couldn’t make any ground on him.”

Archangel’s other wins this year include the $233,250 Empire Breeders Classic (in a track-record 1:53.1 at Vernon Downs) and two legs of the New York Sire Stakes.

A son of Credit Winner, Archangel is the first foal of the multiple-stakes-winning mare Michelles Angel and was purchased for $120,000 at the Standardbred Horse Sale.

Last year, Archangel wore trotting hobbles while on his way to three wins in 13 starts and $135,193 in purses. This year, the trotting hobbles were removed prior to the start of his campaign.

“That was a big plus,” said Arrigenna, who received the Upstate New York Chapter of the U.S. Harness Writers Association’s Good Guy Award in 2010. “He really needed them at the beginning of the year; he just didn’t have the confidence, especially in the first turn. Later in the year he was coming along good, but I hated to change things.

“This year I didn’t even bother putting them on. I jogged him through the winter and started training him and he showed me right off the bat he didn’t need them. He’s just getting a lot of confidence and is starting to come around. This is the best time it could happen, to peak right now.”

Peaking as he gets ready for the biggest starts of his career. Archangel will venture out of New York for the first time this year and race at the Meadowlands for the first time in his life.

“I always worry about the race ahead of me, so I wasn’t worried about the Hambo until we got done with Tioga the other night,” Arrigenna said. “Then it all starts to set in; the adrenaline gets going. Everybody’s been texting and calling and anxious to see the draw.

This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.