There is no shortage of star power on Saturday, July 13 at The Meadowlands as a 14-dash card features 11 consecutive stakes races and a who's who of harness racing talent on Meadowlands Pace night. First race post time is 6:20 p.m.
As it's Meadowlands Pace night, the main event of the evening is the 2024 Meadowlands Pace, slated as Race 11, featuring a pair of Anthony Beaton trained-elimination winners. Those victors — Legendary Hanover (PP6, James MacDonald, 3-1) and Nijinsky (PP3, Louis-Philippe Roy, 2-1) — drew from posts one through six for Saturday's $650,000 final. Nijinsky is unbeaten in six seasonal starts, looking to be the first horse since Tall Dark Stranger (2020) to win both the North America Cup and Meadowlands Pace in the same season. For more on the Meadowlands Pace, click here.
M Ms Dream (PP1, David Miller) has won four of her six starts this year for trainer Ron Burke but neither of the two mares — Jiggy Jog S and Call Me Goo — that have defeated her are among her five rivals in the $40,000 fourth leg of the Miss Versatility Series, slated as the third race and first stakes event of the evening. Tactical Mounds (PP2, Scott Zeron) is the only other mare in the field with a Miss Versatility leg victory this year.
The Del Miller Memorial for three-year-old trotting fillies attracted 18 entrants, split evenly in two $125,000 divisions. New Jersey Sire Stakes champion French Champagne (PP7, Tim Tetrick) has the best form in the firsr group, going postward in the fourth race, sporting a 2-0-1 summary from three seasonal appearances. The 2023 Dan Patch Award winner from this group is Soiree Hanover (PP9, Tetrick also listed), and the Breeders Crown champ from 2023 is Warrawee Michelle (PP8, Ake Svanstedt). Both of these fillies have made just one pari-mutuel appearance thus far this year, and yet to find the winner's circle.
Just one filly in that first Miller division sported six figured in seasonal earnings. The second division boasts two — Empire Breeders Classic winner Honeys Sweet (PP2, Yannick Gingras) and EBC runner-up R Melina (PP5, Scott Zeron). This split, slated as Race 13, also features the co-fastest filly in the division this year, Zweig Filly champ Date Night Hanover (PP9, Dexter Dunn), who sits on the cusp of a $100,000 season and sports a 1:51.4 speed badge, and 2024 Moni Maker victress Allegiant (PP3, Zeron also listed).
The Jerry Silverman Memorial (formerly the Mistletoe Shalee) goes postward in a divisional format as well for 2024, with two $100,000 divisions on tap. Nine fillies comprise the first division in the fifth race, with Caviart Belle (PP8, Gingras) one of those likely to factor. A runner-up in the Fan Hanover back in June, Caviart Belle certainly enjoys racing at the Big M. In seven career starts, Caviart Belle sports a 4-3-0 summary over the New Jersey oval. Yet to make a pari-mutuel start at The Meadowlands is 2023 O'Brien Award winner Pass Line (PP2, Scott Zeron listed), who enters this race off a good second in the Nadia Lobell Stakes this past weekend at Scioto.
Also racing for the first time at The Meadowlands this weekend is 2023 Fan Hanover winner Its A Love Thing (PP5, James MacDonald), the richest and top ranked three-year-old pacing filly. She's the sure favourite in the second Silverman split, but faces nine solid rivals including the established My Girl EJ (PP4, Dunn), Odds On Steno (PP6, Andrew McCarthy) and Geocentric (PP10, Tim Tetrick). These fillies will go postward in Race 12.
Trotting colt Karl continues to turn heads, and harness racing's top ranked trotter continues on his road to the Hambletonian with a test in the sixth race on Saturday in the first of two $135,000 Stanley Dancer Memorial divisions for three-year-old male trotters. Karl (PP8, Gingras) faces seven rivals, all to his inside, including recent Zweig upsetter Dame Good Time (PP3, Scott Zeron).
Two races later, seven male trotters will face the gate in the second Dancer division. This race features the beaten favourite in the Zweig, 2023 O'Brien Award winner T C I (PP2, David Miller) and Canadian record holder Highland Kismet (PP5, Bob McClure) in his stateside debut and first stakes test since that record mile in the 2024 Goodtimes final last month at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Twin B Joe Fresh has asserted her dominance atop the older pacing mare division thus far in 2024, and the four-year-old star seeks her fifth straight win in the $140,000 Dorothy Haughton Memorial. Starting from post two in the seventh race, Twin B Joe Fresh faces a number of familiar foes and a very talented group that includes Dan Patch Award winner Grace Hill (PP1, Todd McCarthy), 2023 Canadian Horse of the Year Sylvia Hanover (PP3, McClure) and Silver Label (PP4, Zeron).
An overfield of 12 four-year-old trotters will contest the $425,000 E.T. Gerry Hambletonian Maturity, slotted as the ninth race on Saturday. The seasonally undefeated Graduate champ Winners Bet (PP11, Dexter Dunn) will need to prevail from a second tier starting spot to stay perfect, while 11 rivals will try to find the chink in his armour. Tim Tetrick had a choice between two trotting mares in this event, and landed on Special Way (PP7) who finished a nose behind Winners Bet in this past Saturday's Graduate final. Andy McCarthy picks up the drive on 2024 Armbro Flight winner Call Me Goo (PP2).
Charlie May (PP2, Jason Bartlett listed) is back to defend his title in the 2024 William R. Haughton Memorial, with some of the sport's top older male pacers looking to take home the lion's share of the $428,000 purse. The field includes 2024 Graduate winner Voukefalas (PP4, Jordan Stratton), 2024 Dave Brower Memorial winner Abuckabett Hanover (PP5, Dexter Dunn) and the sport's fastest pacer this year, Ruthless Hanover (PP10, Andy Miller).
Full entries for Saturday's star-studded card of harness racing here available here: Saturday Entries - Meadowlands Racetrack.
(Standardbred Canada; all purses reported in U.S. dollars)