Author: by Matt Zuccarello, for the MADC Series

Despite rainy conditions, Friday night’s (May 10) trio of Meadowlands Amateur Driving Club (MADC) events at the Meadowlands provided a lot of action and a form reversal, with two of the three betting favorites winning while the other top choice finished second.

A pair of Open Trots highlighted the Friday (May 10) evening card at Eldorado Scioto Downs, and, for the second night in a row, there was significant growth in handle over 2023 with a 48-percent increase over last year’s first Friday card.

Fade Out proved to be highly competitive in the first two legs of the TrackMaster Series for fillies and mares on the pace with a rating of 84 or less, but came up short on both occasions. On Friday night (May 10), at the Meadowlands, in the series’ $23,000 final, a perfect trip for the Jeff Cullipher trainee led to a jaunt down victory lane.

Frondeur (Ridge Warren) captured the $10,000 distaff pacing feature at Tioga Downs on Friday (May 11).

Fear Her Touch (Leon Bailey) captured the $5,000 distaff pacing feature at Vernon Downs on Friday (May 10).

Direction and Cantkeepmiasecret captured their respective co-featured $13,500 conditioned events on a cool and damp Friday (May 10) at Harrah’s Philadelphia.

Sportsmanship ($51.50) was just an afterthought heading down the stretch in Buffalo Raceway’s co-featured $9,000 trot on Friday afternoon (May 10). But the determined 12-year-old gelding showed some serious ‘gamesmanship’ late and stunned the field with a nose victory over Kyuquot in a seasonal best 1:57.

Co-featured trots, both valued at $17,000, were the top of the mark at Plainridge Park on Thursday afternoon (May 9), and both races were won with front-end efforts that produced career-best clockings.

Five sub-1:55 miles on the trot headlined the Thursday (May 9) program at Harrah’s Philadelphia — including a repeat win by Chake in the $13,000 headliner — while 3-year-old pacer Total Stranger broke his maiden in an eye-popping 1:49.1.