Using an eye-popping qualifier six days ago as a prep, Flight Landing was a dominant winner in his first pari-mutuel outing in a month on Friday, March 21 at The Meadowlands, taking the night's featured $22,143 conditioned trot in 1:54.1.
“We purchased him on ongait.com,” said winning trainer Joe Bongiorno of the horse who first qualified for his new barn in mid-February. “We gave him some time off after the purchase and brought him back. He had a little issue in his first start [a rough ninth-place finish] so we gave him some time to get that sorted out and he’s been a different horse since.”
Flight Landing was sent to the gate on Friday as the 5-2 second choice in the wagering despite his 1:53.1 qualifier on March 15, which was one and two-fifths of a second faster than race rival Maximum Exposure’s clocking of 1:54.3 in his last pari-mutuel start, a time that was faster than any of the other horses had gone in any of their recent listed lines.
Driver Mark Herschberger did what he was expected to do and put Flight Landing, a four-year-old son of Tactical Landing-Fly Fly Selena, on the lead. There was never an anxious moment for the winner, who cut out fractions of :28, :56.1 and 1:24.3 on the way to a 1-1/2-length score. Striking Tactful (Johnathan Ahle), a 20-1 outsider, sat a three-hole trip behind the pocket-sitting Maximum Exposure (Jim Pantaleano) and out-kicked that one in the race for place.
“He was coming off a sharp qualifier and Joe crossed his ‘T’s and dotted his ‘I’s here,” said Herschberger. “He raced big. It’s a pleasure sitting behind Joe’s horses. I heard [the rest of the field] coming [in deep stretch] but they were too far back. He was waiting for them but he was in hand.”
“He definitely has high speed,” said Bongiorno. “It’s just a matter of keeping him within himself.”
A Grand Circuit stakes-placed trotter as a rookie for his former trainer Dustin Jones, Flight Landing now has three wins from 25 career outings, but is one-for-two since being acquired by owner Canarsie Stable of Bayville, New Jersey.
Dave Miller, the leading driver at The Big M during 2024 with 106 wins, was red hot on Friday night, registering five wins on the card, which vaulted him past Jason Bartlett into second place in the driver standings at the mile oval. The man in the purple colours became just the second reinsman this year at The Meadowlands to win five times on a card twice, joining Bartlett, who has done it three times (which includes a six-win night). The current standings have Brett Beckwith leading the way with 43 victories, followed by Miller (38) and Bartlett (37).
Winning 20-cent Survivor Pick-7 players shrewd enough to have $66 winner Sailors Shadow in the fifth race had a nice night to say the least. It only took having the first five winners to cash in for $5,904.66. The sequence had winners' odds of 3-1, 5-2, 32-1, 3-2 and 1-2.
All-source handle totalled $2,645,674 USD on the 14-race card.
Racing resumes Saturday at 6:20 p.m. The Jake Leamon-trained Mad Max Hanover shoots for his fifth straight win in the 10th race feature.
(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)
Race #4
The 4th race on the card was the odd-distance 1 1/8 mile race. The race pool was $121,084.77, which was the lowest pool on the entire 14-race card.