The second leg of the Sonsam Series for three and four-year-old pacers will head up Saturday night's program at the Meadowlands Racetrack.
Thirteen declarations for Leg 2 of the series resulted in a pair of divisions, the first of which (Race 2) has been carded as the second half of the Daily Double and offers a contentious six-pack of pacers.
Rockeyed Optimist will start from Post 1 in the first division and will be paired with Brett Miller for the first time (regular driver Tim Tetrick is Down Under to represent the USA in the World Driving Championship). Rockeyed Optimist is maturing into a solid top-class performer this year for the ownership group of Anthony Perretti, Ginny Berkner, A&B Stable and Joe Battaglia. So far this year, Rockeyed Optimist boasts a pair of ‘B’ class wins and a rallying second, which came in last week's opening leg of the Sonsam Series. Steve Elliott trains the four-year-old son of Rocknroll Hanover.
Major Uptrend is the lone returning winner from the first leg – the other Leg 1 winner, Wiggle It Jiggleit, has taken the week off – and he is a likely choice in the second division (Race 11). Last week he held off the aforementioned Rockeyed Optimist after a forwardly-placed trip and scored in 1:50.4 for owner Howard Taylor. Ron Burke trains and Yannick Gingras drives the Somebeachsomewhere gelding.
First-race post time at the Meadowlands on Saturday is 7:15 p.m.
(With files from the Meadowlands)