Remember The Beach zipped the front half in a lively :55, putting the field away early and cruising home in Friday's $10,000 opening leg of the Wilbur Zendt Memorial Pace at The Meadows.
The series honours the memory of Wilbur Zendt, longtime trainer/driver and patriarch of harness racing’s successful and influential Zendt family.
Sent off the 9-5 second pick, Remember The Beach was aided by the early break of the 3-2 favourite, Solarctic, who apparently disliked his trailing post position. Remember The Beach probably didn’t need the help, as he led by five at the three-quarters for Tony Hall and scored in 1:54. Heart On My Sleeve was second, beaten 3-3/4 lengths, with Aime Hanover third.
Tim Twaddle trains the winner, a four-year-old Somebeachsomewhere-Allamerican Memoir gelding, and owns with Micki Rae Stables.
In Friday’s $14,600 Open Handicap Trot, the heavy 3-5 pick Icanflylikeanangel made short work of the short field, delivering a facile front-end score in 1:54.3 for Jim Pantaleano and trainer Randy Bendis, who owns the seven-year-old Archangel-Fox Valley London gelding with Pollack Racing LLC. It was his 24th victory in 100 lifetime starts and lifted his bankroll to $436,036. Final Breath and Outburst completed the ticket.
Hall collected three wins on the 13-race card.
Live harness racing at The Meadows resumes Wednesday when the program features a $1,220.24 carryover in the final-race Super Hi-5. First post is 12:45 p.m.
(MSOA)