Round two for wagering on the 93rd Hambletonian winner opens at 12 noon (EDT) Friday, July 20, and closes at 10 p.m. (EDT) on Sunday, July 22.
Bettors will get two more chances to pick the Hambletonian winner before the race is actually run Saturday, Aug. 4, at The Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, N.J.
Beginning at noon Friday wagering will open on the second of three pools. The first future pool attracted close to $10,000, and with several major preps in the books the front-runners for the $1 million Hambletonian have come into sharp focus.
Two divisions of the $181,000 Stanley Dancer Memorial at the Meadowlands last Saturday yielded a world-record performance by Six Pack and a return to the races for the Goodtimes winner Wolfgang.
Six Pack, owned by Ake Svanstedt Inc., Little E LLC, Stall Kalmar FF and Lars Berg was trained and driven to victory by Svanstedt in a world record for 3-year-olds male trotters of 1:50. The time shaved a fifth of a second off the old mark of 1:50.1 shared by Donato Hanover and Muscle Hill. The Dancer win also earned Six Pack the No. 1 spot on Meadowlands' announcer/analyst Ken Warkentin’s Road to the Hambletonian, and an appearance at No. 9 on the Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown Top 10 Poll.
Six Pack is 4-1 in the Hambletonian Future Pool No. 2.
Wolfgang, the No. 2 horse in the Road to the Hambletonian rankings, won his Dancer division by 2-3/4 lengths over Classichap in a career-best 1:51.2. Zephyr Kronos finished third. Wolfgang is owned by Brixton Medical Inc., Goran Falk, Hatfield Stables and Fair Island Farm Inc., driven by Yannick Gingras and trained by four-time Hambletonian winner Jimmy Takter. A son of My MVP-Summer Savory, Wolfgang has won all three of his starts this season and earned $200,415.
Wolfgang opens up in the Future Pool No. 2 at 5-1.
A new edition to the Future Wager odds line is the filly Atlanta, who sports a perfect slate of five wins in five starts this year, after an easy 1:53.4 victory in a $61,300 division of the N.Y. Sire Stakes at Vernon Downs. The daughter of Chapter Seven-Hemi Blue Chip has racked up $178,234 this year for owners Rick Zeron Stable, Crawford Farms, Holland Racing Stable, Howard Taylor and Brad Grant.
Atlanta debuts in the Future Pool at 8-1
Though fillies have their own division in the $500,000 Hambletonian Oaks, several have started in the $1 million event for males in recent years, most recently world champion Mission Brief, who was second to Pinkman in 2015.
The horses in each of the pools will be listed in alphabetical order. The mutuel field will consist of the remaining horses eligible to the 93rd edition of America’s Trotting Classic, including fillies eligible to the Oaks. There are no supplements permitted to the Hambletonian or Oaks.
Wagering will be available at racetrack and online sites throughout North America and internationally until Sunday, July 22, at 10 p.m. (EDT) when the pool will close.
The minimum future wager is $1.00 and all future wagers are win wagering only. The winner of each pool will be determined by the official first-place finisher in the 2018 Hambletonian.
The Hambletonian Future Wager will be set-up in the tote system as one separate event. The event code is MZH and the future wager pools will be placed as follows:
* Race 2: Hambletonian Future Wager Pool 2 - July 20
-- Opens at noon (EDT); Closes at 10 p.m. (EDT) on July 22.
* Race 3: Hambletonian Future Wager Pool 3 - Aug. 1
-- Opens at noon (EDT); Closes at 10 p.m. (EDT) on Aug. 3.
Further details available at PlayMeadowlands.com and Hambletonian.com.
2018 Hambletonian Future Wagering – Pool No. 2
HD - Horse - Odds
1 - Alarm Detector - 20-1
2 - Atlanta - 8-1
3 - Classichap - 15-1
4 - Crystal Fashion - 8-1
5 - Evaluate - 15-1
6 - Fourth Dimension - 20-1
7 - Mets Hall - 30-1
8 - Six Pack - 4-1
9 - Southwind Chrome - 10-1
10 - Tactical Landing - 8-1
11 - Tae Kwon Deo - 30-1
12 - Wolfgang - 5-1
13 - You Know You Do - 10-1
14 - Zephyr Kronos - 20-1
15 - THE FIELD (All other horses eligible to Hambletonian and Oaks. Fillies can enter the Open division) - 12-1
(Meadowlands)