Canadian-owned Power Code remained undefeated in the second round of New Jersey Sire Stakes (NJSS) for two-year-olds on Friday, July 19 at The Meadowlands.
Seven divisions of freshmen went postward with each sporting a purse of $34,247.
Trained by Nifty Norman while racing stateside, Power Code lowered his lifetime mark to 1:51.2 winning the lone division for the pacing colts and geldings and improved to three-for-three for the Ontario-based father-son ownership duo of Hall of Fame horseman Carl Jamieson and driver Jody Jamieson -- the latter handing the lines to Dexter Dunn for this week's NJSS dash after their opening leg victory last Friday (pictured above).
Dunn sent the Cattlewash-Code In colt to the top from mid-pack after a contested :26.4 opening quarter when the pace slowed to the half in :56.1. Smooth Dream was hot on his heels but Power Code fought back past three-quarters in 1:24 then held off the late rally of Tom Horn to win by half a length. Twin Fury held third after his early speed show from the outermost post 10.
Power Code paid $2.20 to win as the overwhelming 1-9 favourite.
Reckless Abandon and Go Boom both defeated short-priced favourites in their NJSS divisions.
In the lone filly pace, the Brett Pelling-trained Reckless Abandon (Cattlewash-Reclamation), off a traffic-marred second as the 7-5 chalk behind Bequeath, scored some revenge against that foe this time around, scoring as the 3-2 second choice ($5 to win) as the 4-5 Bequeath was trapped along the inside turning for home and had to settle for fourth.
It didn’t look all that great for Reckless Abandon in the early going sitting last in the eight-horse field past the quarter, but driver Todd McCarthy got into a live flow before exploding off cover from second-over in the stretch to go on to an easy 2-3/4-length win over Worklifebalance in 1:52.1.
“I wasn’t happy about getting away eighth, but that :27 opening quarter [put up by Eightsevensix] gave me some hope,” said Pelling. “She is very slick and showed real talent all along.”
Go Boom won the first of two colt and gelding trots in 1:54.1 for Dunn and trainer Marcus Melander. A colt by Muscle Hill-Ilia, Go Boom was a strong second to Hidalgo a week ago, and that mile proved to be enough to get him ready to win.
After staying close to the action from the start, Go Boom moved to the lead at the top of the stretch and easily held sway to the wire, winning by two lengths over Yannick G Kemp. Hidalgo, the 1-5 favourite, was coming at the eventual winner in deep stretch, but went off stride nearing the wire and finished ninth in the 10-horse field. But he wasn’t catching the winner either way.
“He raced very well tonight again as he did last week,” said Melander of Go Boom. “Last week, he got a little lonely on the front [when he finished second], so I couldn’t be happier with how he’s been racing in these first two career starts.”
Go Boom returned $9.40 to win as the 7-2 second choice in the wagering.
The fastest division for male trotters was won by 6-5 favourite Tactical Dynasty (Tactical Landing-Dynasty) in 1:53.2 for driver Yannick Gingras and trainer Ron Burke.
Three divisions of filly trotters went postward led by R Charm (Propulsion-Jewels In Hock) in 1:54.1 with Scott Zeron driving the 5-2 second choice for trainer Linda Toscano. Co-owned by John Fielding of Scarborough, Ont., Spicy Nice (Tactical Landing-Maven) won her division in 1:54.3 as the 3-1 third choice with Andy McCarthy in the bike for trainer Nancy Takter. The Trond Smedshammer-trained 15-1 shot Walspea (Walner-Speak To Me) also won in 1:54.3 giving Dunn another stakes score.
Dunn led the driver colony with four winners on the program. He now has 57 wins on the year, good for fourth on The Big M driver dash-victory list.
All-source handle totalled $3,067,135 USD on the 14-race card. There have been 56 programs conducted at The Meadowlands this year, with 39 of them busting the $3-million barrier in wagering.
Racing resumes on Saturday at 6:20 p.m.
(Standardbred Canada and Meadowlands Racetrack; Photo of Power Code from a previous win)