The 2015 Grand Circuit roars into The Meadowlands on Saturday night with the $47,306 Tar Heel, the three-year-old pacing colt division of the W.N. Reynolds Memorial stake.
Trainer John Butenschoen holds a strong hand in the Tar Heel with a pair of multiple PA Sires Stakes winners in Tomy Terror and Dragon Eddy.
Tomy Terror was precocious right from the start as a freshman, finishing no worse than second in each of his first ten outings. He fell but a nose short of being the PASS champ for his division, dropping the photo in a snappy 1:50.3 at Pocono last September. At season’s end, Tomy Terror has banked in excess of $200,000 and lowered the Vernon Downs track record for two-year-gelding pacers to 1:50.2 in the John F. Simpson Memorial stake. He is owned by the partnership of William Wiswell, Jean Goehlen, Eugene Shick and The Vip Internet Stable, LLC.
Dragon Eddy was also a model of consistency for Butenschoen last season, boasting five wins among eight on-the-board finishes in nine starts at two. He rattled off three state restricted stakes wins at the start and also made the PASS final, finishing fourth. Among his wins was a score at Tioga in a freshman division of the Reynolds. His earnings at year end stood at $143,607 for the same ownership group.
Both are making their seasonal bow in the Reynolds stake, which opens the card as the first half of the Daily Double at 7:15pm.
Later in the evening the second leg of the Whata Baron series offers a very competitive, bulky field of twelve in a single division contested at the distance of a mile and one eighth. Leg one winners Bettorever and Rediscovery return with the latter faced with a second tier start from post twelve.
Also on Saturday are a three Spring Preview events which are filled with sophomore pacers embarking on their promise-filled seasons and a solid Four & Five-Year-Old Open pace. Among the North America Cup eligibles in the Spring Preview are Revenge Shark (55-1 morning line in the Trot Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book) and Edward Teach (100-1).
The $50,000 World Harness Handicapping Contest will take place at The Meadowlands on Saturday and there is still time to enter this lucrative test of skill. The fun starts at 7:15, don’t miss it!
To view entries for Saturday's card, click the following link: Saturday Entries - Meadowlands Racetrack.
(with files from The Meadowlands)