Foiled Again gunned down Bettor Sweet in the final strides to win the $246,000 Graduate, one of two rich stakes for older horses featured on the Saturday night card at Meadowlands Racetrack
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Bettor Sweet brushed to the lead in a blistering :53.3 half, leaving Foiled Again to attack first up as they spiraled through three-quarters in 1:21.1. Driver Yannick Gingras and Foiled Again needed every inch of the lane to wear down the tenacious leader by a neck in 1:49.3. Giddy Up Lucky hustled from way back to finish a neck behind them in third. Sent off at 5-1, Foiled Again paid $12.80 to win the pacing feature.
"He's been good all along, but I am so happy to win this race with him so that people will stop saying he is a half-mile specialist," Gingras said. "He is the toughest horse I've ever driven. He showed it tonight when I drove him first up and he just kept on marching. It was a good battle to the wire and I'm glad we were on top.
"I was actually looking to be first up because that's his best game," Gingras added. "He's been a little tired to be on the front every week, and the two-hole isn't his forte anyway. I was looking to be first or second over, and it worked out. Coming down the stretch I thought I'd win by two [lengths]. His horse [John Campbell and Bettor Sweet] just kept on fighting me. To be honest, I thought I'd go right by him and his horse raced better than I thought he would. Props to [Bettor Sweet], I thought he raced an unbelievable race."
Foiled Again was one of three starters in the final trained by Ron Burke. His stablemates Atochia and 2010 Older Pacer of the Year Won The West finished fourth and sixth, respectively. The seven-year-old gelded son of Dragon Again-In A Safe Place boosted his earnings to over $2.3 million for the partnership of Burke Racing Stable, Weaver Bruscemi and Jjk Stables.
Canadian owned and trained Slave Dream pounced off a perfect second over trip to win the $200,000 Arthur J. Cutler Memorial for trotters earlier in the evening.
Driven by Brian Sears, Slave Dream sprinted off the back of Enough Talk and held off the rally of Buck I St Pat for a length and a half victory in 1:52.4. Neighsay Hanover drafted behind the winner and closed to finish third. Slave Dream, trained by Frank O'Reilly, returned $9.40.
"You couldn't ask for a better trip and he's a nice horse to drive," said Sears, who earned his fourth trophy in the Cutler. "[Trainer Frank O'Reilly] said if we were close coming home, he'd be there for you. My horse felt pretty solid and, with the way people have talked about this horse coming home, I was pretty confident."
Slave Dream won the 2010 Nat Ray Invitational and is now perfect in five stakes attempts at the Meadowlands, having also swept both legs and the final of the 2009 Hiram Woodruff Series. Owned by Quebec partners Franco Cianci and Isidoro Russo, the six-year-old gelded son of Pearsall Hanover-Hungarie F now has 22 wins in 62 career starts and earnings of $853,596.
In other action, millionaire pacer Silent Swing was a wire-to-wire winner in the $30,000 King Of The Sixes final, stopping the clock in 1:51 with Andy Miller in the bike for trainer Mark Ford, who co-owns the nine-year-old Northern Luck gelding with David Shea of Campbelleville, Ont.
(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)