Just 13 days removed from his third victory in the Hambletonian, Ake Svanstedt wasn’t resting on his laurels, taking two of three divisions of the Garden State for two-year-old trotters on Friday, Aug. 15 at The Meadowlands.
Svanstedt trained and drove both of his students, the first of which was Sparks, who won the first of two filly splits in 1:55.3 for her first career victory in three tries. The daughter of Walner-Sheer Energy went wire-to-wire in the six-horse field from post one in the $69,178 event, cutting out fractions of :28.1, :58.2 and 1:28.2 before a :27.1 kicker bested Diamond Bay (Jack Callaghan) by 1-3/4 lengths.
As the 6-5 favourite, Sparks returned $4.40 to her backers.
Rambo Hanover (pictured above) completed Svanstedt’s double in the $102,740 division for colts and geldings. Like Sparks, the son of Muscle Hill-Riding High ran roughshod over his foes with a wire-to-wire win from the rail in the eight-horse test, cutting out fractions of :28.4, :59.1, and 1:27.4 before reporting home an authoritative four-plus length winner over Kingmen (Trond Smedshammer) in 1:55.1. The win marked Rambo Hanover's first victory in four career tries.
“Last time [when he finished 10th in the New Jersey Sire Stakes final], he had a bad post [10]. Today, he had a good post and the competition wasn’t so tough,” said Svanstedt. “He is really quick and [in the stretch] I had a lot left.”
Sent off as the 5-2 second choice, Rambo Hanover returned $7.20.
In the first of the two filly dashes, Emmas Mystery CCL led at every call in her $68,493 division to record her third win in four lifetime tries for driver Andy McCarthy and trainer Noel Daley.
The New Jersey Sire Stakes champion cut out soft fractions of :29, :58.3 and 1:28.2 in the five-horse field from post two, before a final quarter of :27.1 polished off a half-length win over Lipstick (David Miller) in 1:55.3.
“She’s pretty special to me,” said McCarthy of the daughter of Muscle Hill-Mistery Woman. “I drove the mother as well. I kind of trained her all winter with Noel. In her first couple of qualifiers, she made mistakes, but we knew she had talent and she is proving that now. That was the first time I put her on the front and I figured she’d be pretty game. I figured she’d go if I called on her.”
Emmas Mystery CCL paid $2.20 to win as the 1-9 public choice.
A LITTLE MORE: Dave Miller led the driver colony with four victories on the night while Chris Height topped the trainers with three walks down victory lane. … A carryover of $26,408 coaxed bettors to pour $134,179 of “new money” into the Late 50-cent Pick-4 pool, and after a sequence that saw winner’s odds of 2-1, 3-5, 5-1 and 8-5, those with winning tickets cashed in for $173.45. … All-source handle on the 15-race program totaled $2,324,356. … Due to preseason football at MetLife Stadium, there is no live harness racing at The Meadowlands on Saturday, Aug. 16 or Friday, Aug. 22. Racing resumes on Saturday, Aug. 23 at 6:20 p.m.
(Meadowlands)