This final of this year’s Junior Trendsetter Series is setting up to be a good one based on the fact that there have been five different winners in the preliminary legs of the three-week event.
Cole Hard Cash, Sponzo Brotka and Light Up The Sky drew first blood in last week’s opening leg, but they were unable to extend their win streaks at The Meadowlands during Thursday’s second leg of the series.
Glad To Be Back powered away from the foes he faced in Thursday’s opening division, winning in a career-best clocking of 1:51.4 for the duo of driver George Brennan and trainer Bruce Saunders.
Brennan got away third in the early going with the three-year-old son of Power Of Art, who stalked Stand By Cam to the quarter pole in :26.4 before brushing to the top. He proceeded to chop out solid splits of :55.2 and 1:23.3 before finishing off the mile with :28.1 final quarter. Yanzhou was best of the rest in the $12,500 affair and Stand By Cam rounded out the top three.
The homebred, who was sent off at 8-1, racked up five wins in just 10 appearances for the California partnership of James Wilkinson, Jay Rosenberg, Billie Schwartz and Hans Karge. The victory bumped the gelding’s career bankroll to $37,744.
Hypnotic Blue Chip delivered on his 6-5 pari-mutuel promise in the second division, stopping the clock in 1:53.2 for the team of driver Tim Tetrick and trainer Mark Harder.
Mc Idle stole away with sensible splits of :27.1, :57 and 1:26.1, but it still wasn’t enough of an edge to hold off Hypnotic Blue Chip. Tetrick worked out a second over trip with the three-year-old son of Art Major, who used a strong stretch surge to post the victory over Im So Blue and Mc Idle.
The 1:53.2 was a career-best for the two-time winner, who is owned by Harder and the partnership of Deena Rachel Frost, Stable 45 and Robert Murphy. The pacer has stashed away $58,050 to date.
The $80,000 (est.) final of the Junior Trendsetter is scheduled for Saturday, February 21 at The Meadowlands.
To view Thursday’s results, click here.