Magic Punk, making his seasonal debut, used a furious stretch rally to take the first significant three-year-old open trotting stake of the season, the $212,331 Dexter Cup, in an event-record 1:53.1 on Saturday, May 2 at The Meadowlands as the track kicked off its Championship Meet.
Magic Punk had a superb season at two for trainer Ake Svanstedt, winning half of his eight starts as well as finishing second to division standouts Apex and Ardonne in the Peter Haughton and William Wellwood Memorials, respectively.
“(From a maturation standpoint he was) really nothing special because he was very all-around last year,” said Sarah Svanstedt. “You just want them to grow a little bit, and he has done that, and he is a talented horse, so he's going to have a nice three-year-old season.”
After winning the way he did, it certainly looks that way.
Sitting fifth in the eight-horse field early as Nordic Dancer S (Scott Zeron) hit the quarter in :28.3, Magic Punk stayed glued to the rail as 8-5 second choice Southwind Alamo (Todd McCarthy) brushed from fourth to grab the lead at the half in :57.1. Midwind Chimp (Mattias Melander) then popped out of the fourth spot just before the five-eighths as Magic Punk looked to track that move but gapped cover down the backstretch.
Southwind Alamo hit the gas as three-quarters went in 1:25.2 while Magic Punk got closer to his cover before swinging three-wide into the stretch drive. Southwind Alamo looked like a tired horse with an eighth of a mile to go and by now, Ake Svanstedt, who drove the colt by Wishing Stone-I D Entity No, had Magic Punk closing with a rush. The 7-5 favourite swept to the lead drew off to a 1-3/4-length score over Southwind Alamo, using a lightning-quick :26.4 final quarter to do it. Whos Eyes Blues (Yannick Gingras) was third.
“He has been like the top three (trotting colts in our barn),” said Sarah Svanstedt. “So, everything has to follow with the game plan, what they have to do going forward from here. But with this start now in early May, it's of course nice to think about the future.”
Magic Punk raised his lifetime bankroll to $412,880 with his fifth win in nine outings for Magic Punk Inc. He paid $4.80 to win.
Ygritte sat the three-hole to the half before travelling first-over on the way to a remarkably game victory in the $91,419 Lady Suffolk for three-year-old filly trotters.
“She showed a lot,” said winning driver Mattias Melander. “She's just a fabulous filly. Got to love her.”
Crossover (Dexter Dunn) reached the front at the quarter in :28.3 before All Time Trot S (Yannick Gingras), the even-money favourite, took the lead before the half and reached that station in :57.2. She still led at three-quarters in 1:26.1, but after racing most of the stretch with a narrow advantage, could not hold off one last surge by Ygritte, who won by a neck in 1:53.3. Crossover was third.
“She showed a lot of toughness (through the stretch drive),” said Melander. “She knows what to do and she's just very nice like that.”
Trained by Mattias’ brother, Marcus, Ygritte won for the second time from just three lifetime starts and raised her earnings to $52,901 for SRF Stable and Eric Good. The daughter of Gimpanzee-Etta Am S had only one start at two after sustaining an injury early on in the season. She returned $35.80 as the 16-1 fourth choice in the wagering.
Antognoni S followed up his season-opening 1:51.1 score on April 10 with an even more impressive performance in the $54,054 JL Cruze Open Handicap Trot, taking down his Ron Burke-trained stablemate Lexus Kody, who was the 2025 Dan Patch Trotter of the Year.
“(Antognoni S) is a super-fast horse and his manners are getting really good now,” said winning driver and co-owner Yannick Gingras.
Antognoni S sat a three-hole trip through :27.3, :55.1 and 1:23.3 fractions and vacated the rail just as the field started to bend onto the far turn. With an electric burst of speed, he took the lead away from Lexus Kody (Dexter Dunn) at the top of the stretch and secured control at the eighth pole on the way to a 1-1/2-length win in a lifetime-best 1:50.4. Ari Ferrari J (Scott Zeron) was third.
“You know, Kody is still the horse to beat. It was his first start (of the year) tonight,” said Gingras. “He's a couple of weeks behind this horse, but Kody can put up big fractions and live to talk about it. I don't know if this horse can do that. But as far as when it turns into a sprint, I don't think there's many horses that can hold him out.”
Antognoni S, a six-year-old gelded son of Father Patrick-Bouncing Bax, has now won 24 of 46 lifetime starts, good for earnings of $791,086. He is perfect in two 2026 starts for owners Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, FAC Racing LLC and Gingras. He returned $2.40 as the 1-5 public choice.
Be Perfect Bg and Bookie J both extended their winning streaks in the $33,784 New Jersey Sire Stakes (NJSS) first-leg platinum events for three-year-old pacers on the card.
Be Perfect Bg, who capped off an undefeated freshman season with an NJSS final victory, improved to six-for-six with a dominant performance in her three-year-old debut in the filly split. Dexter Dunn worked her to the lead on the first turn, and after setting splits of :27.4, :54.4 and 1:23, she rebuffed Sunny Station (Todd McCarthy) and sprinted home a three-length winner in 1:50, a new lifetime mark. She Stings (Joe Bongiorno) was second, followed by Interstellar (Jason Bartlett). The winning daughter of Perfect Sting-Jk Mardi Says has now earned $183,695. Tony Beaton trains the filly for Ecurie CSL of Sorel-Tracy, Que. The win price was $2.20.
Bookie J, fresh off a win in the New Jersey Home Grown, stayed perfect in three starts at three as he held on by a nose over Azrael Blue Chip in the division for colts and geldings. Starting from the inside, Bookie J was shuffled to third through a :27 first quarter before moving to the lead at the half in :55 for Dunn. He led through three-quarters in 1:23.1 and straightened for home in the lead with Azrael Blue Chip (Andrew McCarthy) circling wide off the turn in pursuit, and that rival closed the gap throughout the stretch but was short by a nose as Bookie J scored in a lifetime-best 1:50. Thisbeestings Deo (Yannick Gingras) completed the ticket. Chris Ryder trains Bookie J for Ken Jacobs. The sophomore son of Perfect Sting-Skyy has won five straight races, including the Kindergarten Series final at two, and is now seven-for-14 with $336,192 in earnings. He paid $4 to win.
Jason Bartlett, Dexter Dunn and Joe Bongiorno topped the driver colony with three winners apiece on the 14-race card.
All-source wagering topped the $3-million mark for the fourth time this year at The Big M, as $3,222,493 was pushed through the windows. Racing resumes on Friday at 6:35 p.m.
(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)