While the warm spring and summer months and the marquis Championship Meet at the Meadowlands Racetrack are many months away, the unseasonably mild conditions in East Rutherford, New Jersey provided a hint of summer on the track on Saturday night.
In what was the fastest mile witnessed so far at the new Meadowlands Racing & Entertainment, Validus Deo opened eyes going a huge first over trip and stopping the teletimer in an extremely sharp 1:48.4 in the Three-Year-Old B-1/A-2 Handicap Pace.
The fastest harness racing mile in the month of December is 1:48 flat, posted by Heston Blue Chip last year on Dec. 2 in the Matron Stakes at Dover Downs.
Corey Callahan drove the winner for owners Bamond Racing LLC and trainer P.J. Fraley. Sweet Talkin Satin did a lot of the work on the front end, getting to the half in :53.4 while ensuring a rapid clip. He held his ground well, finishing a game second. Perhaps even more impressive was the effort of Dovuto Hanover, who overcame a break at the start and made up 15 lengths to finish a fast-closing third, pacing the mile in 1:49.1 with a final quarter in :26-seconds flat.
Hypnotic Blue Chip also paced a sub-1:50 mile on Saturday, winning the seventh race B-1 Pace in 1:49.3. The win was one of three on the night for John Campbell. Corey Callahan, Yannick Gingras, Jeff Dauplaise and Joe Bongiorno all scored driving doubles on the card.
Once again, all three guaranteed pools returned massive dividends. Of the Early Pick 4, Late Pick 4 and Pick 5, none returned less than $1,807.60 and the Late Pick 4, a sequence that saw winners that paid $8.80, $22.40, $6.20 and $12.60 returned a monstrous $10,407. A four-race parlay of those same prices would have returned just over $1,660, reinforcing the value of the Late Pick 4 wager at The Meadowlands.
As the month of December rolls along, total handle at the Meadowlands continues to climb. The $2,885,432 wagered on the 13-race program was the most of the month and was a 23 percent increase from the last time the Meadowlands raced on this Saturday in 2010.
Racing returns on Friday, December 27 with first post time at 7:15 p.m. The Meadowlands management and staff would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.
(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)