The Hambletonian Maturity, a $450,000 race exclusively for four-year-old trotters, attracted 11 entrants and will head to post this Saturday (July 13) at the Meadowlands Racetrack.
Atlanta – the 2018 Hambletonian winner, who is one of just 14 fillies to ever capture the classic event – raced in the record books last Saturday in the final of the Graduate, as she collared world champion Six Pack at the wire in 1:49.1. The clocking makes Atlanta the fastest trotting mare ever, and it is the fastest trotting mile ever at the Meadowlands.
A win in the Maturity by Atlanta, a daughter of Chapter Seven-Hemi Blue Chip, would make her just the second Hambletonian champion after Marion Marauder (2017) to capture the modern-day edition of the Maturity.
Post positions, driver choices, race number and morning line odds will be available when finalized.
The field in alphabetical order appears below.
Atlanta
Crystal Fashion
Custom Cantab
Fiftydallarbill
Manchego
Mission Accepted
Muscle M Up
Phaetosive
Run Director
Six Pack
Southwind Chrome
The Hambletonian Maturity was created by the Hambletonian Society and the Meadowlands as a racing opportunity solely for four-year-olds previously eligible to the Hambletonian and Oaks. Like those events, the Maturity’s racing conditions prohibit the use of lasix, the only race-day medication permitted in New Jersey. Entrants are subject to out of competition testing and a retention barn. The Maturity will be contested at a distance of one-and-one-eighths-miles.
All starters in the race will receive a percentage of the purse money, with the winner receiving 50 per cent of the purse. One per cent of the total purse will be paid to the owners of the finalists that finish sixth through eleventh. The remainder of the purse for the Maturity will be divided 50-24-16-10 per cent for the horses finishing second through fifth.
(Hambletonian Society)
Why isn't there a companion
Why isn't there a companion event for 4 year old pacers? I would much rather watch Lather Up, Jimmy Freight, Courtly Choice and Always A Prince go at it again and see if Lather Up can break the world record that he tied last week and become the fastest pacer of all time.