Todd McCarthy was the man at The Meadowlands Friday night, guiding five winners on the program, including 30-1 longshot Annabelle Hanover in the featured $28,000 TrackMaster rating pace for fillies and mares.
McCarthy’s night gets even better when you consider that four of the 13 races on the program were GSY Series events for amateur drivers, so his five victories came from just nine drives.
The 28-year-old McCarthy’s big night got underway when he steered even-money favourite Just N Ace to victory lane in the second race low-end conditioned pace for trainer Izzy Estrada in 1:52.1. McCarthy and Estrada would team up twice more during the night, hitting the winner’s circle with 9-5 public choice Rockin Indy in a low-end TrackMaster rating pace in 1:53.2 in the fourth and wire-to-wire winner Pappy Rocks (the 4-5 favourite in 1:53.2) in a low-end conditioned pace for fillies and mares in the 13th.
McCarthy also scored with 3-1 second choice Letsgotobrazil A, a Kelvin Harrison trainee who took a mid-range conditioned pace in 1:51.1 in the ninth, before his biggest win of the night.
In the 12th, he guided Annabelle Hanover to a 30-1 upset in the featured TrackMaster rating of 92 or less fillies and mares pace in 1:51. The Jeff Cullipher-trained four-year-old daughter of Somebeachsomewhere-Always On A Roll followed live cover provided by Tempus Seelster before tipping three-wide for the stretch drive on the way to gunning down stubborn 1-2 favourite Marloe Hanover by a neck.
Tony Verruso recorded the 100th driving win of his career when he took the first GSY Series race with Notabadgame in the opener. He then got started on his march to 200 victories by taking the second GSY event with Slated To Win in the third. Both were the post-time favourite.
Racing resumes Saturday at 6:20 p.m. with eight divisions of the fifth and final leg of the Kindergarten Classic Series for two-year-olds sitting atop the marquee. There’s also a $36,000 winners-over pace that pits Let It Ride N, who got back into the win column a week ago, against Dan Patch and McKee Memorial champion Catch The Fire.
(Meadowlands)