by James Witherite, Meadowlands racing media

East Rutherford, NJ — Always B Miki, the swiftest horse to ever place a hoof on a harness track, made one final visit to the Big M winner’s enclosure on Friday (Nov. 18) for a special retirement ceremony after he capped his career with a resounding win in the $400,000 TVG Free-For-All Pace last weekend.

He concluded his career with 30 wins in 53 career starts, over $2.7 million in earnings and a career mark of 1:46 taken at the Red Mile in October.

Always B Miki will transition from the Jimmy Takter stable to assume stud duty at Diamond Creek Farm in Pennsylvania.

Tessa Seelster is resolute

In other action at the Meadowlands, odds-on favorite Tessa Seelster ($3.00), after patiently tracking an exacting pace, was able to chase down pocket rival Inittowinafortune to capture Friday’s featured $17,500 contest at the Meadowlands.

Tessa Seelster was anxious to move forward when the gates folded in, but Yannick Gingras was able to wrangle the 4-year-old daughter of Shadow Play into a tracking spot behind pacesetter Nat a Virgin (David Miller) and the pocket-sitting Inittowinafortune (Corey Callahan) through early splits of :26.3 and :53.4. With five-sixteenths to go, Tessa Seelster angled second-over behind Inittowinafortune, who powered clear of a taxed Nat a Virgin approaching head-stretch.

While Inittowinafortune edged away by nearly four lengths in upper stretch, she too began to tire in the final sixteenth, just nosed out in the last yards of a 1:50 mile by Tessa Seelster. Icommandmyspirit (Jim Marohn, Jr.) rallied belatedly to save third, 2-3/4 lengths in arrears of the top pair.

Ron Burke trains Tessa Seelster for the Burke Racing Stable, the Weaver Bruscemi partnership, and Jonathan Newman.

Live racing returns to the Meadowlands with an 11-race card slated for Saturday evening (Nov. 19) with a last race Jackpot Super High-5 carryover of $38,181.74. Post time is 7:15 p.m.