Friday night's card at The Meadowlands was strong, with several top trotting and pacing events sprinkled throughout the evening.
The second race was a solid B-1/A-2 Handicap Trot with a pretty even group facing the starter, or so it seemed. Ontario Sires Stakes graduate Il Mago, despite no evidence of real early speed in his form, left the gate fast and effectively towed Ron Pierce through grueling splits of :26.4, :55 and 1:24, leading by as many as seven lengths at the stretch call and coasted in by nearly four in 1:54.
Mark Harder trains and co-owns the four-year-old son of Kadabra with Chris Alexander Stable of Aurora, Ont.
Race three was the trotting feature, a $30,000 A-1/Free-For-All Handicap event with plenty of early action. The lead changed hands no fewer than four times as the field passed the half, with even-money favourite Sevruga and Andy Miller the last to the lead in :56. Ice Machine was left out and pressing around the final bend, but Sevruga was solid and rolled to a safe 1:53.1 win. Tall Cotton drafted along and held second while Ice Machine was a brave third.
Julie Miller trains the winner for KDM Stables Corp.
The seventh race Fillies & Mares A-2/Free For All Handicap saw last year's Milton Stakes and Forest City Pace winner Rocklamation starting her five-year-old campaign well and paying tribute to her late sire, Rocknroll Hanover, with a crisp off cover win in 1:50.4 for the top combo of Yannick Gingras and Ron Burke. Gingras had the career winner of $1.2 million in a perfect striking spot, following live cover up to a leader that paid a price to make the front and Rocklamation rolled on by under minimal encouragement. Unred Hanover used a clever Ron Pierce steer to save place and Southwind Jazmin held well after being used to get to the front in a :54.3 half.
The winner is owned by Our Horse Cents Stables, Stable 45 and Jerry Silva.
The driving star of the night was Corey Callahan, who scored a natural hat trick towards the end of the card.
It was another successful night at the betting windows at the Meadowlands as the total handle of $2,939,450 marked an increase of $625,139 for the same 11 races on this Friday one year ago, an increase of 27 per cent. Live handle also showed an increase of 5 per cent.
Racing returns on Saturday with a 13-race card featuring The Aquarius and Horse And Groom finals along with the $75,000 Guaranteed Late Pick 4.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Meadowlands Racetrack.
(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)