Captain Barbossa and Papi Rob Hanover won in impressive fashion in Kindergarten Classic action Friday night as live racing returned to the Meadowlands after a nine-week hiatus.
A son of Captaintreacherous-Swinging Beauty, Captain Barbossa was an easy three-quarter length, wire-to-wire winner over Team Best in the first of two dashes for colts and geldings on the pace in the Kindergarten, which is for 2-year-olds.
Andy McCarthy put the Tony Alagna trainee on the point early, then cut out all the fractions on the way to a 1:52 score, his third win in 12 lifetime starts. The lifetime earner of $113,079, who returned $2.60 to his backers as the 1-5 public choice, has hit the board nine times.
In the other division for male pacers, 1-9 favourite Papi Rob Hanover was a dominant winner for driver David Miller and trainer Brett Pelling as the son of Somebeachsomewhere-Panera Hanover stopped the clock in 1:52.
Miller had the lifetime earner of $315,358 sit a three-hole trip to the top of the stretch before swinging wide in the lane and easily powering past his foes to record a 2-1/2 length score over Force N Fury. He’s won three-of-eight in his career, hitting the board in every start, and returned $2.10 to win.
Fresh off his superb week at Lexington’s Red Mile, where he was the leading Grand Circuit driver, Dexter Dunn had four winners on the card. Scott Zeron, Marcus Miller and David Miller had two apiece.
The Linda Toscano-trained Rocknificent impressed from just off the pace as the 3-5 choice in a division of the Kindergarten for pacing fillies, stopping the clock in 1:54.1, one of two winners on the night for the Hall of Fame trainer. The fastest of the two divisions went to Annabelle Hanover for Dunn and trainer 'Nifty' Norman in 1:53.3.
Norman and Toscano also captured the Kindergarten divisions for the trotting fillies. Dunn guided Creature Of Habit to victory for Norman in a time of 1:54.4, while Toscano's Senorita Rita was just a tick slower in her division for Scott Zeron.
A single Kindergarten division for trotting colts went to Sky Castles, a wire-to-wire winner for Zeron and trainer Andrew Harris in 1:55.
(with files from The Meadowlands)