Last season, Lyonssomewhere won a leg of the pacing Triple Crown, when he scored in the Cane Pace at Tioga Downs. Amazingly, that was the last time the son of Somebeachsomewhere found the winner’s circle. That changed on Saturday night at The Meadowlands.
Making his fourth start of his four-year-old season, Lyonssomewhere was exiting back-to-back fourth=place finishes in The Graduate Series against the best colts and geldings from his crop. He was dropping in class to a middle-level condition pacing event and the bettors responded, making him the 1-2 prohibitive betting choice.
Off the gate, Andy Miller sent the favourite immediately to the lead and he would go on to set a demanding pace, reeling off fractions of :26.3, :54.4 and 1:21.4 before turning for home with an ever-expanding lead. JK Patriot was chasing from the pocket, but simply could not keep up in the stretch. Windsong Gorgeous, who sat along the pylons the entire mile, rebounded and rallied willingly in the stretch, but Lyonssomewhere was long gone, winning in 1:48.2. Windsong Gorgeous was second and JK Patriot checked in third.
For Lyonssomewhere, it was the first victory of his four-year-old season and his eighth from 20 career starts, with earnings now over $447,000. He is owned by Geoffrey Lyons Mound and trained by Julie Miller. The 1:48.2 clocking was a new lifetime mark.
The Caramore Series continued Saturday night at The Meadowlands with 26 horses split into three divisions. The first division ended in a mild upset as the overwhelming favourite, Dragon Lore, was left with too much to do and could not catch Kings Barns and Andy Miller, who led from just past the quarter pole all the way to the wire, to win in 1:50.4, a lifetime-best performance. The second split saw Account Rollover and Vincent Ginsburg make it back-to-back wins in the series, as he parlayed a perfect pocket trip into another victory, stopping the teletimer in 1:50, establishing a new lifetime mark for the second week in a row. The third and final division saw the second choice in the wagering, Stonehouse Adam, rallying from the pocket up the pylons to grab the victory from heavily favoured Long Live Rock to win in 1:51.4 for Joe Bongiorno.
In other action, Ontario Success and Mister Virgin put on a good show in an upper-level condition pacing event, battling from just past the half-mile pole all the way down to the wire, with Ontario Success and Joe Bongiorno just getting up in the shadow of the wire over Mister Virgin to score in 1:49.1, which was, once again, a new lifetime mark.
Both 20-cent Super Hi-5 Jackpots went unclaimed, with the fifth race carryover expanding to $159,224 and the last race carryover growing to $136,155.
The total handle was up nearly 25 percent over this same day in 2014, and on track handle was up five percent as well.
Racing returns on Friday evening with the third round of The Graduate Series for the four-year-old pacers and trotters. Post time is 7:15 p.m.
(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)