The Saturday (March 7) card at Freehold Raceway is loaded with action. There are 13 races, many with overflow fields. The headliner is the Preferred Handicap Pace, scheduled as the ninth race.
Last week's Preferred winner, Tie Your Shoe Ed, will seek to defend his title from post position five. The John Bavosi-trained gelding won last week with a great inside trip. He has won three times at Freehold in 2020 while bankrolling $14,456. Jim Marshall III has been named as the pilot.
Freehold hosted a special Invitational Handicap Pace last week, won by Soho Lennon A. While he will not return this week, three of his rivals from that race will. Lyons Steel was seventh last week, and it was a flat effort on the surface. However, that was largely because he had to close off a very slow early pace. Three starts back, sitting behind a faster pace, he rolled from behind and won going away. He'll hope to get a similar pace setup this time for trainer Dennis Watson and driver Pat Lachance.
Newbie has been in fine form since joining the Nick Surick barn earlier in the year. So far in 2020, he's hit the board in seven out of nine starts, while earning more than $19,000. He finished third in the invitational last week, and will seek to duplicate the magic here. Andy Miller will drive.
Lucan Hanover was well-backed last week, but couldn't get an outside rally going and finished fifth. He's got post position eight this week, for trainer Eric Ell and driver Drew Monti.
National Seelster, Exit Cam, Casual Cool and Hudsen A complete the field. The latter will make his American debut in Sunday after a solid qualifying mile last week at Freehold.
The first race at Freehold on Saturday will be at approximately 12:30 p.m. EST.
(Freehold Raceway)