Mister Herbie took his show on the road Saturday night venturing stateside for the first time in his career and captured the $210,000 Arthur J. Cutler Memorial Stake for free-for-all trotters at Meadowlands Racetrack for the O'Brien Award winning driver-trainer combination of Jody Jamieson and Jeff Gillis
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After defeating reigning Horse of the Year San Pail over one month ago in the Glorys Comet Trotting Series Final, the popular Mister Herbie returned to action on Saturday and wore down the tempo-setting Winning Mister in the final strides for the 1:51.3 victory, matching his lifetime mark.
Tim Tetrick fired Cutler Prep winner Winning Mister off the gate from the outside post nine and the duo worked their way to the top during a :27-second opening quarter while Jamieson and Mister Herbie got away fifth from post two.
As the field headed into the backstretch, Jamieson pulled his trotter off the pylons behind the parked out Dig For Dollars, driven by Jim Oscarsson, and went three-wide around that foe.
Mister Herbie advanced first up to the half in :56.1 and moved up alongside the leader by the 1:23.1 third quarter station. He began to drift out in the stretch with Winning Mister drawing clear again, but the 3-2 favourite dug in down the lane to prevail by half a length. Hot Shot Blue Chip and John Campbell finished three lengths behind in third.
"It wasn't good. I wasn't thinking anything good [being three-wide at the three-eighths pole]," commented Jamieson after the win. "I didn't mind being first up at all; this horse is an incredible animal. I really thought that the only way he could get beat was if something like that happened and he even surprised me. This horse was unbelievable beating San Pail -- that's not an everyday occurrence -- and he just dug in deep from a terrible trip [tonight] and showed his true grit.
"This game is all about trips and Timmy got to just glide out of there and go for the lead and just go by the half in :56.1, which is just crawling for these horses. I was first up and manoeuvring for the whole three-eighths before that and he just showed his medal by digging in during the last five-eighths of a mile."
Mister Herbie paid $5 to win for the fourth time in five seasonal starts. The four-year-old gelding is now a career winner of 14 races and $559,403. With the win, his connections are hoping for an invite to the Nat Ray.
"I'm not an over-confident person when it comes to talking about my horses, but this horse just gives you a feeling that everything is going to be alright," said Gillis, who shares ownership of the Here Comes Herbie son as part of the J Gillis G Stay partnership with Mac Nichol of Burlington, Ont. "He just refuses to lose and digs in. I can't say enough about him."
Gillis, who turned down an invitation to race Mister Herbie in Sweden's Elitlopp in two weeks, said with his trotter being just four years old and having some hoof issues the timing wasn't right.
"We would love to be invited again next year," he said. "We want to go over there to win it so I just felt like this wasn't the year for us. We're going to stay and hopefully do well here."
The Cutler honours the memory of the late horse owner and New York City restaurateur whose culinary legacy includes Carmine's, Virgil's Real BBQ, Artie's Delicatessen and Gabriela's. Cutler died of a heart attack in 1997, at the age of 53.
“Artie was a great guy,” said New Meadowlands Racetrack LLC Chairman Jeff Gural. “He loved the Meadowlands and I wish he was here because I’m sure he‘d be my partner in this venture. He was a great restaurateur and a great friend. We have 80 or 90 of his friends who still gather here. Even after 15 years, we still have a great crowd that comes here to honour his memory.
“It was a great race,” Gural continued. “I really appreciate the connections coming down here. I’m disappointed San Pail didn’t come, but obviously, Canada sent their A-team down to show us what they could do. I’m glad they did. The horse acquitted himself in spectacular fashion.”
After sweeping the Presidential Series and Spring Pacing Championship, Golden Receiver added another stakes trophy to his resume and surpassed the million-dollar mark in career earnings with a front-striding 1:48.2 triumph in the $180,000 Graduate Stake for pacers.
With Brian Sears in tow, 5-2 third choice Golden Receiver crossed over to take the lead from post seven before the first turn and fired off a :26.3 opening quarter. He took a breather during the second panel while Foiled Again and Yannick Gingras launched a first over attack from fourth with elimination winner and odds-on favourite Rockincam and David Miller following their cover.
Golden Receiver reached the half in :55.2, followed by three-quarters in 1:21.4 before pulling away from the field into the stretch. The Mark Harder trainee won by three lengths with pocket-sitter Bettor Sweet and John Campbell edging out Foiled Again for second.
"With those calibre of horses you don't know, but I definitely wanted to try and cross over before the turn because he has that kind of speed," commented Sears after the win. "The way he does it every week, it's amazing how sharp he is...He does all the work and he's never looking for a trip and it's pretty amazing.
"I did get a comfortable [second] quarter there and I knew we would just have to push on from there so I just hit the gas and tried to outlast them. He's as sharp as ever."
Golden Receiver is now nine-for-11 on the year and has yet to finish worse than third. His winning time tonight was just two-fifths of a second off his lifetime mark, established in a leg of the Presidential.
"Judging from what he's doing on the racetrack, maybe he is better [than ever]," said Harder. "Maybe [he'll race in] an Open here next week, the Dan Patch, he's in everything. If he stays happy and is racing good, he's in everything."
The seven-year-old Village Jove gelding is owned by Stable 45, Richard Taylor, Stephen Springer, and breeder Nina Simmonds. The win was No. 45 in his career and brought his bankroll to $1,002,925.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Meadowlands Racetrack.
(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)