Winter Series finals on Saturday at The Meadowlands

from the Meadowlands Media Relations Department

East Rutherford, NJ — The first ‘Winter Series Final Spectacular’ of the 2015 season takes place on Saturday (Jan. 24) at The Meadowlands. The finals for the Super Bowl, Worldly Beauty and Escort highlight the 13-race card which also features a leg of the World Harness Handicapping Championship and possibly a few big carryover pools.

The series finals begin with the $50,000 Super Bowl in race three. A powerful three-pronged entry that contains two potential sweepers in Propulsion and Opulent Yankee will grab much of the play here.

Propulsion was a comfortable winner in both legs and has won half of his ten career starts for trainer Tony Alagna and owners Brittany Farms, Marvin Katz, Sam Goldband, Al Libfeld, Joe Sbrocco and Little E LLC. He’ll launch from post one for regular driver Tim Tetrick.

Opulent Yankee owns the fastest Super Bowl leg win with his 1:53.2 score last week, but has drawn the far outside in here. Julie Miller trains him for ownership group Little E LLC, Arthur Geiger, Jason Settlemoir and David Stolz. Driver Andy Miller must fashion a winning trip from the undesirable starting point.

Julie Miller also trains the third member of the entry, Blocking The Way, a leg one winner racing for new owners Nick Surick, Harvey Eisman and Bert Hochsprung, who plucked him out of Monday’s Tattersalls Mixed Sale for $30,000.

JL Cruze and Two Hip Dip shall attempt to deflate the favored entry.

The sixth race is the $47,600 Worldly Beauty final, which offers a rematch between Witch Dali and Donttellruss.

Witch Dali swept through the Niagara series at Woodbine through December and looked invincible for the Worldly Beauty with a stunning 1:51.1 win in leg one, but Donttellruss had the answer last week from the pocket.

Tony Alagna trains Witch Dali for his own interest as Alagna Racing LLC in partnership with Brad Grant and will again call on Tetrick to find the answer from post nine.

Donttellruss gets a new pilot for the final with Corey Callahan replacing the Prix d’Amerique-bound Yannick Gingras for trainer Ron Burke. She begins from post six for Burke Racing, Weaver Bruscemi, Larry Karr and Frank Baldachino.

The $56,000 Escort final is the seventh race and trainer Ron Burke has a very strong hand in this one.

Major Uptrend cruised in the first leg but broke as the heavy favorite in leg two. He has displayed a quick turn of foot on a number of occasions this winter. Corey Callahan returns to the sulky for owner Howard Taylor and begins from post five.

Burke also sends out the improving What I Believe from just inside his main rival in this one. This 4-year-old has really found his best form on the mile track, winning three of four here, including leg one by a scant nose and dead-heating for the “W” in leg two. He also gets a new driver in Brett Miller in the final for owners Burke Racing Stable and Weaver Bruscemi.

The World Harness Handicapping Championship opens the contest season for 2015 and you may enter until 7 p.m. on Saturday.

The Super Hi-5 Jackpot carryovers are at $34,076 for race five and $52,684 in the last race going into this week’s racing which begins Thursday night (Jan. 22) at 7:15 p.m. Thursday programs are free at the track.

Related Articles:

  • Miller’s faith in Opulent Yankee is coming to fruition (Wednesday, January 21, 2015)
    Julie Miller thought Opulent Yankee might be well suited for series racing this winter at the Meadowlands, and so far the 4-year-old trotter has made good on the trainer’s beliefs.
  • Escort contender JK Patriot takes after his mother (Thursday, January 22, 2015)
    From where trainer Linda Toscano sits, JK Patriot looks like his mom. More importantly, the 4-year-old pacer acts like her too.
  • Late blooming Propulsion is flashing his potential (Friday, January 23, 2015)
    Tony Alagna hopes Propulsion keeps moving forward. Purchased for $250,000 at the 2012 Lexington Selected Sale, the 4-year-old trotter was unraced at age 2 because of immaturity, but has won five of his last eight starts dating back to August.

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