Call For Justice, who hadn’t won in five starts since leaving The Meadows, made a triumphant return home Wednesday with a front-end victory in the $20,000 Preferred Handicap Trot.
A five-year-old son of Justice Hall-Mikas Mazurka, Call For Justice opened the year with five straight victories at The Meadows before shifting to Hoosier Park to face the trotting elite there. He hit the board in all five Indiana outings but couldn’t reach the winners’ circle.
Call For Justice ended that frustrating streak when he made the front past the quarter for Dave Palone and held off the pocket-sitting Classicality by a neck in 1:53.2, with Boy Meets Girl K third. Ron Burke trains Call For Justice, who now boasts a lifetime bankroll of $358,167, for Burke Racing Stable and Weaver Bruscemi LLC.
In Wednesday’s companion feature, the $18,000 Filly & Mare Preferred Handicap Trot, 1-2 favourite Barn Girl withstood the first-over challenge of Dirty Secret and prevailed by a half-length margin in 1:54.3. Bessie rallied for second while Dirty Secret held show.
Aaron Merriman drove the five-year-old daughter of Cash Hall-Turquoise Sweetie, who extended her career bankroll to $480,268, for trainer Bill Bercury and owner Renee Bercury.
Elsewhere on the card, Kristysgingergal became harness racing’s fastest freshman filly trotter on a five-eighths-mile track when she won at first asking for trainer/driver Tyler Stillings and owner Baby Horses LLC. The daughter of Pilgrims Chuckie-Outback Kristy scored in 1:59.1. Stillings enjoyed another victory with a debuting two-year-old filly from his stable when Swan Mama (Swan For All-Little Rigs) broke her maiden in 2:00.1.
Live racing at The Meadows resumes Friday with a special twilight program, first post 5 p.m.
(The Meadows)