by Ellen Harvey, Harness Racing Communications

East Rutherford, NJ — Resolve and driver/trainer Ake Svanstedt withstood a judge’s inquiry to win the $273,600 John Cashman Memorial for older trotters on Saturday (Aug. 6) at The Meadowlands in a time of 1:50.2.

Lisa photo

Resolve was a 1:50.2 winner in the John Cashman Memorial.

The 6-5 favorite Resolve was first to the lead at the :27.1 first quarter, with Crazy Wow (Tim Tetrick) behind him on the rail. JL Cruze (John Campbell) was on the move past that mark, grabbing the lead briefly, before ceding to Flanagan Memory (Chris Christoforou) just past the :54.3 half. Flanagan Memory held that lead to the 1:22.2 three-quarters.

Meanwhile, Resolve was moving three wide close to the three-quarters, prompting a judge’s inquiry to look closely at whether he interfered with Homicide Hunter when he fanned wide.

As the field turned for home, Flanagan Memory was hard pressed by JL Cruze and Il Sogno Dream (David Miller), but Resolve was coming fastest of all in the center of the track, getting up to win by 1-1/4 lengths. Obrigado (Mark MacDonald) was second and Flanagan Memory was 1-3/4 lengths off the winner in third.

Resolve, a 5-year-old Muscle Hill stallion, is owned by Hans Enggren. The victory was his 12th lifetime and improved his career earnings to $1.31 million.

“We have good tracks to train the horses on our farm,” said Svanstedt. “This horse is a little bit different. If it’s a long way between the races he’s more excited and he wants to race. He always does better races when there are a couple of weeks in between.

“He’s not like (former Svanstedt trainee and world champion) Sebastian K, but he’s a very good horse and I hope he can race at that level for maybe one more year.”