Caviart Luca and 'Big M'-leading driver Yannick Gingras nailed favourite K Ryan Bluechip at the wire in the featured Preferred for pacers on Saturday, March 16.
Speedsters Castle Flight and New Talent were on the go early. Castle Flight led at the quarter in :27.3 while New Talent, fresh off his 1:49.2 score last week, then brushed to the top at the three-eighths and hit the half in :55.1. The 2-1 chalk K Ryan Bluechip was gradually chipping away at the leader’s edge racing first-over. All the while, Caviart Luca was sitting in what appeared to be an impossible spot–third at the rail–with four horses in the outer flow.
K Ryan Bluechip inched his way past New Talent with a little less than three-sixteenths of a mile to go. Enter racing luck and Gingras. Finding a seam just big enough as the field spread out in the stretch, Gingras moved Caviart Luca off the rail to get directly behind K Ryan Bluechip with an eighth to go. Inside the sixteenth pole, Caviart Luca swung to the outside and managed to get up by the smallest of noses at the wire. New Talent held on for third.
“I just got lucky to find a seam in the middle,” said Gingras, “my horse was sharp and ready.”
Making just his second start of the year, Caviart Luca, eighth and last in his 2019 debut at Yonkers, returned $10.40 as the third choice in the wagering for trainer Ron Burke and owners Burke Racing, Weaver Bruscemi and Phillip Collura. The eight-year-old gelded son of Somebeachsomewhere-Caviart Sierra, who completed the mile in 1:51.1, has now won 29-of-141 career starts and earned $742,535.
ANDY’S DANDY: Andy Miller piloted four winners on the card, giving him seven for the weekend. Gingras was right behind him with six after winning three times on both Friday and Saturday.
On the training side, the red-hot Jennifer Bongiorno made two Saturday winner’s circle visits, giving her three victories for the weekend.
A LITTLE MORE: Wagering continued to be strong as all-source betting totaled $2,919,538.
50-Cent Pick-4 cashers walked away with $903.80 by using 9-1 shot Pepper Guy and driver Dexter Dunn in the ninth race. The winners' odds of the other three horses in the sequence were 4-1, 9-2 and 3-2.
Dunn and Vinny Ginsburg each drove a pair of winners.
Racing resumes Friday, March 22 at 7:15 p.m. Bettors will have a new wager to try as that evening will see the debut of the Can-Am Pick-4, a wager that requires players to pick two winners at the Meadowlands and two at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
(Meadowlands Racetrack)