Gallie Getaway worked out a perfect pocket trip on the way to pulling off a 12-1 surprise in the Saturday, Aug. 22 feature at The Meadowlands, a $21,917 claiming handicap pace for horses in for a tag of no less than $27,397 and no more than $34,247.
Owned and trained by Mark Silva, Gallie Getaway was away alertly from post four in the nine-horse field and settled into second right behind 5-2 favourite Rocknroll Gold (William Carter), who cut out fractions of :27.1, :56 and 1:23.4.
Winning driver Vinny Ginsburg opted to vacate the pocket as the field straightened up in the stretch with 3/16ths to go, and Gallie Getaway gradually inched closer to the leader before getting up late to record a half-length win over a fast-closing Miki Ray (Brad Chisholm) in 1:51. Rocknroll Gold held third.
“I thought he’d be sharp tonight,” said Ginsburg.
Gallie Getaway, a six-year-old gelded son of Sweet Lou-Gallie Beach, recorded his 12th win from 93 lifetime starts. He lifted his career earnings to $276,874 while returning $26.80 to his backers.
Australian driver Will Rixon tallied his first pair of victories in North America with a double on the 13-race card. The 25-year-old has won four Group 1s in his native country, including the Nullarbor, and is on a working holiday in the U.S., according to Harness Racing Update. After four drives at The Meadowlands on Aug. 15 in his U.S. bow, he won, fittingly, with Pack Your Bags ($6) in the second race on Saturday. Fourth on the pegs on the last turn, he unleashed the Joseph Gulotta-trained gelding coming into the stretch and brought him home for a 4-1/4-length victory in 1:54.3. Rixon, who has 978 wins Down Under, is two-for-eight in the United States after winning with Casino Action N ($58) in a 28-1 upset later on the card.
A carryover of $27,713 USD motivated players to pour $118,576 USD of new money into the 20-cent Pick-5 pool for a grand total of $146,289 USD. After a sequence that had winners' odds of 7-1, 2-1, 8-5, 4-5 and 15-1, many winning tickets were exchanged for a healthy $873.50.
Mark Herschberger was the top dog of the driver colony, guiding four horses to victory lane. Enrico Robinson topped the trainers with two winners.
Stefan Ferrara ($1,000.75 USD) and John Skladany ($726.50 USD) finished with the top two bankrolls in Leg 8 of the $1,000 USD Meadowlands Monthly Handicapping Contest. The pair have now earned three entries (for finishing in the top two) into the year-end $10,000 USD invitation only contest final on Dec. 12.
All-source handle on the 13-race program totalled $1,796,351 USD.
There is no live racing at The Meadowlands on Friday with the Jets playing the Giants at 7:30 p.m. at MetLife Stadium. Thus, the lone live Big M race card of the week will be conducted Saturday with the usual 6:20 p.m. post time.
(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)