Lately at The Meadowlands, driver Brett Beckwith has turned the marvelous into the mundane, as the red-hot defending Big M driving champ, who guided 36 winners during the month of December, won back-to-back $24,306 high-end conditioned events featured on the Friday, Jan. 9 program.
The 22-year-old driver worked out a perfect pocket trip for the Ron Burke-trained Finite in the ninth race co-featured trot, overtaking 2-1 favourite Super Duper Cooper (Mark Herschberger) to win as the 7-2 third choice in the wagering.
“He was obviously really good tonight,” said Beckwith after Finite's lifetime-best 1:52.4 victory. “My horse did it all on his own. Super Duper Cooper is a nice horse, every horse in there is a talented animal, but mine went a career-best effort tonight.”
A five-year-old gelded son of Resolve-Awesome Chrissy, Finite racked up his 10th career victory in 53 tries.
He paid $9.60 to win after hitting the wire one-length in front of Super Duper Cooper.
Finite is owned by Pennsylvania's Burke Racing Stable, Weaver Bruscemi and Phillip Collura.
Beckwith had an easier time of it in the 10th race co-featured pace for fillies and mares, guiding Australian import Tick A Loch A to a 3-1/4-length score over Pressure Cooker (Jim Marohn Jr.) in 1:51 in the mare's first-ever start on North American soil.
Chris Height trains the six-year-old daughter of Always B Miki-Timely Loch, who took the lead just after the quarter and never had an anxious moment on the way to victory lane. She returned $2.60 as the 1-5 favourite.
Tick A Lock A is owned by New Jersey's Michael Casalino Jr. She had 10 prior wins along with 25 other top three finishes in 55 starts down under.
A winner of 146 Big M races during 2025 who’s copped five straight Big M Driver of the Week Awards, Beckwith ended the night with four wins on the 14-race card. Beckwith is threatening to make 2026 a runaway in his quest for a second consecutive Meadowlands driver title. He already has 12 victories this year, seven more than runner-up Mark Herschberger.
Another $24,306 conditioned trot earlier on the card was won by Canadian-owned Exquisite Taste as the four-year-old mare nosed out Dwood (Patrick Ryder) and Net Weight (Johnathan Ahle) in a 1:53.1 career-best performance for Ecurie Csl of Sorel-Tracy, Que., and Louis-Philippe Roy Racing of Campbellville, Ont. A daughter of Resolve-Ghost Glider, the Ontario Sires Stakes graduate is trained and driven stateside by Pat Lachance.
The victory was the fourth in 25 career starts for Exquisite Taste, who is approaching the $250,000 earnings mark. She paid $7.60 to win as the 5-2 second choice.
Two longshots led to no winning tickets being sold on the 20-cent Pick-5. After a sequence where the winner's odds were 9-1, 5-2, 51-1, 40-1 and 2-1, those with four correct collected $200.30. When racing resumes Saturday, punters will be swimming in a big pool, which will start out with a carryover of $29,637. The Pick-5 is offered on races one through five.
All-source handle on the 14-race program totalled $2,647,675 USD.
Racing resumes on Saturday at 6:20 p.m. This week marks the first of four consecutive Sunday programs when post time will be 12:30 p.m.
(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack; photo of Finite winning in Jan. 9)