Legendary Hanover took the lead at the half-mile point of Saturday’s $650,000 Meadowlands Pace and dominated from there, drawing away in the stretch for a stakes-record 1:46.3 victory in the 48th edition of the one-mile event for 3-year-old pacers at the Meadowlands.
Author: by Ken Weingartner, USTA Media Relations Manager
Caviart Belle, Its A Love Thing seize Silverman divisions
Caviart Belle won the $100,000 first division of the Jerry Silverman Memorial, for 3-year-old filly pacers, on Saturday (July 13) at the Meadowlands. Yannick Gingras drove the filly to a career-best 1:49 mile in the stakes event, formerly known as the Mistletoe Shalee. In the second $100,000 division, Its A Love Thing faced off against her top foe My Girl EJ and eight others and won it in 1:49.1 with James MacDonald in the bike.
Chapercraz conquers Hambletonian Maturity
Chapercraz and driver Yannick Gingras delivered a multi-move trip for a 2:05.2 win over 11 rivals in the $425,000 E.T. Gerry Jr. Hambletonian Maturity, for 4-year-old trotters over 1-1/8 miles, at the Meadowlands on Saturday (July 13).
Abuckabett Hanover bursts home a winner in William Haughton
Perched in second-over position by driver Dexter Dunn, Abuckabett Hanover lunged off his cover in a stretch sprint to overhaul pacesetter Voukefalas and win the $428,000 William Haughton Memorial, for older pacers, at the Meadowlands on Saturday night (July 13).
Sig Sauer stuns in Dancer; Karl, T C I both defeated
Prospective Hambletonian favorite Karl encountered a major bump in the road when Sig Sauer soared past him and posted a 65-1 upset in the first $135,000 division of the Stanley Dancer Memorial, for 3-year-old male trotters, at the Meadowlands on Saturday night (July 13). Driver Andy McCarthy guided the Noel Daley trainee past another long shot — Tony Adams S — in the shade of the wire to win for the first time in 2024 while handing Karl, the 1-9 favorite, his first defeat of the year.
Twin B Joe Fresh steadfast in Haughton score
Twin B Joe Fresh and driver Dexter Dunn went to the front on the backstretch, fended off a challenge from Sylvia Hanover, and then held off late-closing Silver Label by a half length to win Saturday’s (July 13) $140,000 Dorothy Haughton Memorial for older female pacers in a career-best 1:47.3 at the Meadowlands. Sylvia Hanover was third.
Meadowlands Pace 2024 News Center
Meadowlands Pace Night is underway, with 11 stakes events for a combined $2.4 million in purses bringing harness racing’s best to East Rutherford, N.J. Visit our News Center through the course of the evening for recaps and updates as the action unfolds.
Tactical Mounds blazes a 1:49.4 Miss Versatility score
After a third-place finish behind divisional standout Jiggy Jog S in the $112,500 Six Pack on June 29, Tactical Mounds surged back to the winner’s circle with a scintillating 1:49.4 lifetime-best mile and her second victory in the Miss Versatility, capturing the $40,000 fourth preliminary leg of the series for trotting mares on Saturday (July 13) at the Meadowlands.
Cowgirl Hanover stays undefeated with NYSS win at Yonkers
Cowgirl Hanover improved to three-for-three in her career and came up just two-fifths of a second short of the MGM Yonkers Raceway track record for a 2-year-old pacing filly when she won the second of two $74,500 New York Sire Stakes divisions on Thursday night (July 11) at Yonkers in 1:53.3. Earlier on the program, Send It Down Slim prevailed in 1:56.2.
Grummel’s three-peat an extraordinary feat
It’s rare for a harness racing trainer to condition a division champion in back-to-back years; however, when Whiskey Lou was named the best in her division, it gave Illinois horseman Curt Grummel an even more unique accomplishment: his third consecutive Illinois Conceived and Foaled 2-year-old filly trot titleholder.