It’s been decades since a three-year-old male pacer beat older horses in a race the magnitude of Saturday’s $350,000 TVG Open Pace championship at the Meadowlands Racetrack, but Bettors Wish is ready to give it a go.
The TVG open finals are part of a stakes-filled card that is set for the Meadowlands Racetrack this Saturday (Nov. 23). The program will also feature TVG championships for trotting mares and pacing mares, plus the Fall Final Four for two-year-old male and female trotters and pacers. Racing will get underway at 7 p.m. (EST).
Bettors Wish is this year’s richest horse, with $1.56 million in purses. He has won 13 of 18 races and finished second in all five of his defeats (the past four by no more than a neck). He heads to the TVG Open Pace off of a victory in the Matron Stakes for three-year-old male pacers on November 14 at Dover Downs.
The most recent three-year-old male pacer to knock off older foes in a major race was Niatross, who won the American Pacing Classic at Hollywood Park in 1980. The only three-year-old to previously enter the TVG Open Pace final was Captaintreacherous, who finished sixth in 2013.
Bettors Wish, pictured victorious in the Tattersalls.
“I hope to win it,” said Chris Ryder, who trains and co-owns Bettors Wish. “Honestly, I never put my expectations too high. That’s the way I started in the business, and that’s the way I am. But this horse always, I don’t want to say exceeds my expectations, but he always gets there. He gives you a lot of confidence. I’m never nervous racing this horse, he’s just a high achiever.
“If we could win it, it would be huge. I know it’s a risk, but no risk, no gain. Things don’t happen if you don’t try. I’m just excited to be in. To think at the beginning of the season that we would have been in with the big boys at the end of the year, you never would have thought that. But he’s earned his way in, all credit to him.”
Bettors Wish, by Bettors Delight and out of Lifetime Star, will start the TVG final from Post 7 with driver Dexter Dunn. The 10-horse field includes returning event champion McWicked, who also is the defending Horse of the Year in the U.S. and Canada, as well as Breeders Crown winner American History, Potomac Pace winner Endeavor, and Canadian Pacing Derby winner Courtly Choice.
“We’re just pleased to be in it, pleased that we’re well, and that’s it,” said Ryder, who owns Bettors Wish with Bella Racing, Fair Island Farm, and Bettors Wish Partners. “He’s as good as ever.”
(With files from the USTA)