Elegant A used a big move down the backstretch to romp in the Friday night, Oct. 30 feature at The Meadowlands, a $17,606 conditioned pace for fillies and mares.
Driver William Carter had the eight-year-old daughter of Somebeachsomewhere-Spokeswoman on the go early from post five in the seven-horse field (there was one scratch) but Going Away (Joe Bongiorno) and Kissin In The Dark (Mark Herchberger) were also alert from the gate and lined up one-two past the quarter in :27 with Elegant A sitting third.
Going Away hit the half in :55.3, but Carter had Elegant A on the move first-over and went up and over the leader with a quick burst of speed and led at three-quarters by 3-1/2 lengths in 1:23 on the way to a dominant six-length win in 1:50.2. Kissin In The Dark closed along the inside for second with Cant See Me (James Kennedy) third.
“I felt like I had a nice handful,” said the 22-year-old Carter. “[When you make a move like that] sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.”
Elegant A, an Enrico Robinson trainee owned by Pollack Racing of Venetia, Pennsylvania, returned $5.20 as the 8-5 favourite. Her earnings stand at $489,561 and she has 32 victories from 127 lifetime starts.
There were three carryovers offered on the card to tempt the betting public. First up was the 20-cent Pick-5 in the first race, which had a carryover of $20,891. That enticed punters to pour $82,902 of new money into the pool, and after a sequence with winners' odds of 16-1, 6-1/5-2 (dead heat), 5-2, 8-5 and 2-5, the payout was $459.72.
The third race started out with a carryover of $2,655 in the 20-cent Pick-6. Those with winning tickets cashed in for $403.90 after a sequence where winners' odds were 5-2, 8-5, 2-5, 1-5, 8-1 and 7-5.
Finally, in race seven, a rare 10-cent Hi-5 (or Pentafecta, if you prefer) carryover of $8,417 motivated players to wager an additional $20,631 in the pool, and after the winning combination of 4-5-10-8-1 (with an 8-1 shot on top) rolled in, those with winning tickets walked away with $2,505.23.
Carter, Anibal Borjas, Joe Bongiorno and Johnathan Ahle tied for top driver honors with two winners apiece. Robinson and Bongiorno led the trainers with a pair of walks down victory lane each.
All-source handle on the 13-race card totalled $1,701,471 USD.
Racing resumes on Saturday at 6:20 p.m. The featured events are four Kindergarten finals for two-year-olds.
(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)