East Rutherford, NJ — The final night of racing in 2021 at The Meadowlands featured a big 20-cent Pick-5 carryover and payout, as well as a big night for driver Scott Zeron, who scored four times on the 14-race Friday night (Dec. 31) program.

The action in the Pick-5 was fast and furious as a $38,923.56 carryover led to $231,849.96 in “new money” being poured into the pot for a total pool of $270,773. The excitement gained big-time momentum after driver Johnathan Ahle guided 57-1 shot Galactic Galleon N to victory lane in the second race GSY final, and when the will pays were posted before the start of the fifth race, there were three possibilities of single-ticket winners walking away with better than $230,000.

The big payoff wasn’t to be, but those who cashed did not complain.

Monty Mono took the sixth race at The Meadowlands Friday night, one of four winners on the card for driver Scott Zeron. Lisa photo.

Perfectboy Hanover and Zeron took the fifth race at odds of 4-1 to complete the Pick-5, which returned $27,565.46. Other than the 50-1 shot, the odds of the other four winners were 5-1, 5-1, 5-1 and 4-1. There were no winning favorites.

The 20-cent Pick-6 saw a modest $6,131 carryover grow to a total pool of over $39,000, and one shrewd player had the only winning ticket that returned $34,157. The sequence saw a 50-1 bomb joined by horses who were sent off at 2-1, 1-2, 3-2, 7-2 and 5-1.

With the top six drivers at the Fall Meeting taking the night off, Zeron (currently No. 7) had his way, as in addition to his win in the fifth race, he was on target with 8-1 chance Monty Mono in the sixth race; 2-1 shot Opus Blue Chip in the seventh; and Skyway Kon Man, who went off at 3-2 in the 11th.

$3 Million Per: The Meadowlands had a remarkable 2021 from a handle perspective, finishing the 92 race cards with an average wager per card of just over $3 million.

Wagering on the Friday card totaled $2,973,353, bringing total betting for the calendar year to $276,031,079, good for an average of $3,000,337 per card.

Getting It Dunn: After being the leading driver at both the Winter-Spring-Championship and Fall Meetings, Dexter Dunn finished the year atop the Big M standings with 166 victories. Yannick Gingras was second with 117.

Ron Burke finished second to Jeff Cullipher in the W-S-C Meeting but won 30 times in the Fall to pass Cullipher for the year, 79 wins to 71.

A Little More: The Pick-5 and Pick-6 weren’t the only big payouts on the card, as the 20-cent Survivor Pick-7 returned $7,015, despite it taking only five correct selections to do it.

Driver Trae Porter, 20, recorded his first-ever Big M win when he scored with 7-2 chance Doctor Butch from just off the pace in race 12.

The Meadowlands has no live racing on Saturday (Jan. 1) and will return with live action on Friday (Jan. 7) at 6:20 p.m.