Ygritte and Toby Ornot Toby scored in the Friday, June 19 co-features at The Meadowlands, taking their respective $45,139 divisions of the Exit 16W Pop-Up Series finals for three and four-year-olds of each gait.
In the split for trotters, Ygritte stayed perfect in five seasonal tries for trainer Marcus Melander, and his brother, Mattias, who guided the three-year-old daughter of Gimpanzee-Etta Am S to a 1:53.3 score.
Sitting fourth early as longshot Dollar Draft (Todd McCarthy) hit the quarter in :29 and half in :57, Mattias Melander moved Ygritte off the rail just after the half-mile marker. She moved with authority toward the leader first-over, towing slight even-money favourite It Could Be Worse (Tim Tetrick) with her, as Dollar Draft clung tenuously to the top at three-quarters in 1:25.1.
Ygritte collared Dollar Draft with an eighth to go, but soon thereafter, It Could Be Worse tipped off that one’s cover with what appeared to be a full head of steam, only to go off stride with a little more than a sixteenth to go, which permitted Ygritte to go on to an easy three-quarter-length win over a fast-closing Lucchese (Dexter Dunn). Dollar Draft held third.
“It wasn’t a great trip. She had to do a lot of work by herself,” said the winning driver. “She’s just a great filly.”
A Hambletonian Oaks eligible, Ygritte, who only had one start during 2025, paid $4.20 to win as the even-money second choice in the betting.
She is owned by S R F Stable of Delray Beach, Florida and Eric Good of Davidsonville, Maryland.
Toby Ornot Toby won the division for pacers after grinding his foes down first-over for the final half-mile on the way to a 1:51.3 score for trainer Scott DiDomenico and driver Tim Tetrick.
Off a 1:52 win a week ago, Rocknacious (Jason Bartlett) went to the gate as the 6-5 favourite from the rail, and after watching Battlin Bob (Scott Zeron) take the field of seven past the quarter in :27.4, Bartlett moved the chalk to the top and led at the half in :56.2.
Rocknacious was rolling along down the backside, but Toby Ornot Toby was on the scene after vacating the rail from fourth with a half-mile to go, and was getting uncomfortably close to the leader as three-quarters went in 1:24.3.
Toby Ornot Toby continued to gain on Rocknacious, taking the top with an eighth to go on the way to a 1-1/2-length score, his third victory in 13 lifetime tries.
“This colt, he was really good [tonight] after being off a month before last week. Anybody who watched him last week could see he had some sneaky late pace,” said Tetrick. “Scotty and the crew had him ready. He’s an above average colt.”
Toby Ornot Toby, a Meadowlands Pace eligible who is a two-year-old gelded son of Tall Dark Stranger-Mackie Hanover, returned $6.80 to win as the 2-1 second choice.
He is owned by Oompa S Farm of Cream Ridge, New Jersey and Joseph Barbera of Melville, New York.
The series was for non-winners of three races or $30,000 USD lifetime.
Braxten Boyd and Johnathan Ahle led the driver colony with two wins apiece. Yogi Sheridan topped the trainers with two walks down victory lane.
One lucky player cashed in on the Early 20-cent Pick-5 to the tune of $36,979.44. The lone winning ticket was exchanged after a sequence with winners' odds of 17-1, 4-1, 8-1, 7-5 and 21-1.
All-source handle totalled $2,341,388 USD on the 14-race program.
Racing resumes on Saturday at 6:35 p.m.
(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)