Periculum is a Latin word that means danger, risk or peril, and lately, the horse with the same name has been creating that kind of chaos for his opponents at The Meadowlands, as the Marcus Melander trainee won the Friday, June 7 feature, a $27,658 high-end conditioned trot.
The five-year-old son of Muscle Hill-Amour Heiress usually does his best work from off the pace, but that’s not the way it went this time.
Seeking a third win in four seasonal tries, Periculum was away well from post six in the seven-horse field as Purple Lord had the lead out of the first turn and made it to the quarter in :27.2.
Driver Mattias Melander, Marcus's brother, kept on going with Periculum while parked until they made it to the point just after the three-eighths. They raced past the half on an easy lead in :55.4, and when the pocket-sitting Purple Lord went off stride midway around the far turn, Periculum was left with a 2-3/4-length advantage at three-quarters in 1:24.1.
From there, the only thing in question was by how much the lifetime earner of just over $500,000 would win by, and he completed the mile in 1:51.3, 6-1/4 lengths ahead of second-place finisher Outside The Fire. Nelsonbriteagle NO was flying late for third in an effort that handicappers will no doubt take note of.
“It was a very good effort,” said Marcus Melander of Periculum. “Especially doing it on the front. He’s usually best when he follows someone. But he’s been doing everything right so far this year except when he made that break in the Cutler. Next for him will probably be the Crawford Farms Trot in about three weeks. Maybe he’ll go in one overnight in between.”
Owned by Brixton Medical Inc. and Holly Lane Stud East Ltd., Periculum won for the eighth time from 37 lifetime starts. He returned $2.80 to his backers as the 2-5 favourite.
For a second straight program, there were no winning tickets sold in the 20-cent Pick-6, setting up a carryover of $21,360 for Saturday’s card. In the event the wager, which is offered on races four through nine, takes in $80,000 of “new money,” the total pool would be just short of $90,000, creating a “negative takeout” pool for players, meaning that in the event there are winning tickets, monies paid out will exceed what’s taken in. Those with five correct on Friday collected $1,003.38.
Andy McCarthy, Andy Miller and Dave Miller ended the night tied atop the driver leaderboard with two winners apiece.
Michael Carter was the winner on Night 2 of the track’s Battle of The Meadowlands Masterminds handicapping contest. Carter was the only handicapper of the five (which includes Jessica Otten, Dave Little, Ken Warkentin and Gabe Prewitt) to cash a ticket, ending the night with $210.
All-source wagering totalled $2,940,142 on the 14-race program.
The first edition of “Breakfast with the Babies” takes place on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Catch all of the action live at playmeadowlands.com if you can’t make it out to the track.
Live pari-mutuel racing resumes on Saturday at 6:20 p.m.
(Meadowlands Racetrack)