Boston Bound appeared to be in an ambitious spot in the Saturday, Jan. 10 feature at The Meadowlands, a $34,722 TrackMaster 90 on the pace, but after being claimed out of his last outing for $47,945, the Chris Height trainee proved up to the jump in class as he recorded a sizzling 1:50.1 score on a damp, chilly evening over a sloppy track.
Music Hall (Austin Siegelman) and Bondi Lockdown A (Brad Chisholm) pushed the gate away at the start as Boston Bound, driven by Mark Herschberger, also opted to mix it up in the early fray. Music Hall led at the quarter in a snappy :26.3 before Boston Bound grabbed the point between the three-eighths and half and hit the midway point in :54.1 as Jettingtomalibu (Kyle Symington) was applying pressure from the outside.
The harassment continued around the far turn as Boston Bound reached three-quarters in 1:23, but as the field straightened away at the top of the lane, Boston Bound shrugged off Jettingtomalibu and powered clear to a 1-3/4-length victory in a dazzling lifetime-best performance. American Dealer N (Brett Beckwith) rallied for second with Jettingtomalibu holding third.
“He’s super nice, two fingers to drive,” said Herschberger. “It took us a bit to clear, we got stretched out a bit to the half, but it was such a game effort having somebody come at him that early and fight back. He’s such a good horse.
“The first-up horse, he gave a good effort through the turn, and then we just kind of put him away. I kicked the [ear] plugs out off the turn and gave him a good holler, and he responded very well.”
Boston Bound, a six-year-old son of Boston Red Rocks-Ashleeswayrhighway, registered his fourth straight win and 19th lifetime in 86 starts. Owned by William Emmons, the 5-2 second choice returned $7.40 to his backers while raising his lifetime earnings to $321,350.
Colin Kelly, Siegelman, Symington and Herschberger all tied atop the driver leaderboard on the program with a pair of winners apiece. Rico Robinson topped the trainers with two walks down victory lane.
A carryover of $29,637 motivated players to go deep and bet $173,075 of new money into the 20-cent Pick-5 pool, for a grand total of $202,712. Because of the prolific carryover, players who had winning tickets were getting a return of 102 per cent, a rare but popular “negative takeout”. After a sequence that saw winners' odds of 4-1, 1-5, 5-2, 7-1 and 5-1, winning tickets were exchanged for $877.76.
Del Kern hit the 20-cent Pick-5, and that was the catalyst in contest-regular Kern taking the first of 11 monthly installments of the 2026 Meadowlands Monthly Handicapping Contest. He finished the night with a bankroll of $934.01 to not only take that money home, but also the $694 first prize in the $1,389 competition. Stefan Ferrara’s final tally of $840.76 was good for second and $347 in prize money. By finishing one-two, Kern and Ferrara have earned spots in the end-of-the-year, $10,000 USD invitation-only contest “final,” where only the 11 monthly top-two finishers will be eligible to participate. The next $1,000 USD qualifier is on Friday, Feb. 20.
All-source wagering on the 14-race card totalled $2,627,845. Racing resumes on Sunday at 12:30 p.m., the first of four consecutive Sunday programs that will be contested at The Big M during 2026.
(The Meadowlands)