by Carol Hodes, for the New Jersey Sire Stakes

Tenton, NJ — Camshaft Hanover, Get Out Of Dodge and Scape Ghost, all sons of Artiscape, earned spots in the $175,000 New Jersey Sire Stakes Final for 3-year-old pacing colts and will likely collide again with McCedes, who is closing in on $400,000 in earnings.

McCedes, who won the $500,000 Anthony Abbatiello New Jersey Classic on May 31, captured an opening round division of the New Jersey Sire Stakes on May 17. The son of McArdle, driven by Cat Manzi and trained by Chris Ryder, is owned by Ryder and Jerry Silva.

This year, for the first time, the New Jersey Sire Stakes program will crown all of its 3-year-old pacing and trotting champions at the Meadowlands on one night — June 20 — with purses totaling $700,000. The Night of Champions is the richest night in New Jersey Sire Stakes history.

Ian Smith’s Camshaft Hanover, driven by Eric Goodell and trained by David Pinkney, Jr., won a pair of NJSS preliminaries — May 17 and June 7 — but finished seventh to Get Out Of Dodge in the third leg on June 14.

Get Out Of Dodge, driven by Yannick Gingras and trained by Mark Harder, was also a double winner, scoring in a prelim on June 7. He won again on June 14 in the same division as McCedes, who mustered only a fifth-place finish despite a :25.4 last quarter. Get Out Of Dodge races in the names of Wayne Carleton, Dean Lockhart and Daniel Sarafian.

Scape Ghost, who had ventured to Mohawk but failed to advance to the final of the North America Cup, made the most of his only NJSS preliminary, winning on June 14. Dale Hiteman drives the Mark Silva trainee who is owned by Rodney Mitchell Inc.

Rounding out the quintet of preliminary leg winners is Harley D Hanover, a Western Ideal colt trained by Linda Toscano. His NJSS victory on May 17 has been his only trip to the winner’s circle this year, but he has finished second five times and third five times in 14 starts. He is owned by the Stake Your Claim Stable and Deborah Kilpe.

The New Jersey Sire Stakes record for 3-year-old pacing colts is 1:49.1 set by Artistic Fella (Pacific Fella) on June 24, 2006. The mark for geldings is 1:49.3 which was established by Die Lute (Die Laughing) on July 2, 1999.