The Saturday night (December 26) card at The Meadowlands offers horseplayers an instant opportunity to recoup holiday dollars with a value-centric 15-race extravaganza.
With live harness racing confined to a single day for the next two weeks around Christmas and New Year’s Day, the Boxing Day card accommodates a whopping 164 horses with eleven programmed for all but one race.
The races are comprised of the classes ordinarily found on the Friday night card, trotters and pacing mares go this week and the regular Saturday overnight stock will race next Saturday.
At the top of the heap is the $25,000 Open (race 9) with morning line favourite Tweet Me a tepid 3-1 choice starting from post eleven in the second tier. The four-year-old daughter of Andover Hall has had a solid season earning over $128,000 for owner Bridget McNeese with several open class wins among her seven victories, including her last at Yonkers.
Tweet Me makes her return to mile-track racing at The Meadowlands where she competed in the Del Miller Memorial and Hambletonian Oaks last year. While she has enjoyed great success on the twice-arounds this season, her fastest winning mile was a 1:53 effort over a talented field at Pocono last month. Pat Lachance is in for the drive for trainer Nick Devita on Saturday.
The oddsmaker sees Uva Hanover and Hyway Marcus as the main obstacles Tweet Me must overcome on her path to victory.
With such a big production undertaken on Saturday, post time has been moved up to 6:35 p.m. (as will be the case for next Saturday as well) and the wagering format has been adjusted.
The horizontal wager guaranteed pools are set at $30,000 for the Pick 5 (races 3-7), $25,000 for the Early Pick 4 (race 5-8) and $50,000 for the Late Pick 4 (races 9-12). The Jackpot Hi-5 comes up in races 7 (carryover at $10,225) and 15 (carryover at $40,952).
The Meadowlands offers several attractive dining options for your consideration. Reservations are recommended.
(with files from The Meadowlands)