from the Meadowlands Media Relations Department

East Rutherford, NJ — The Free For All pacers have taken turns beating each other for the majority of the meet thus far at The Meadowlands. That trend continued on Saturday night (Jan. 3) in the form of Doctor Butch.

Lisa photo

Doctor Butch was a winner in 1:49 for driver Tim Tetrick.

Sent off as the 4-1 third choice, Doctor Butch settled mid-pack and off the pace that was established early on by last week’s winner, Dapper Dude. After tripping the opening quarter in :26, John Campbell elected to yield the lead with Dapper Dude to the oncoming Warrawee Needy, who moved to the front, hitting the half-mile in :54.

At this point, the outer-flow began to develop, led by the gritty Wake Up Peter who committed first over. Warrawee Needy went past three-quarters in 1:21.3, beginning to feel the pressure of the 9-5 favorite, Wake Up Peter, who put a head in front in the stretch.

But Doctor Butch was hot on his heels to track his cover from second over and he was able to wear down the favorite while holding off the late charge of Beach Memories, who had been tracking Doctor Butch throughout.

Doctor Butch completed the mile in 1:49, which established a new lifetime mark for the son of Art Major. The win marked the second on the card for trainer Linda Toscano and the third for driver Tim Tetrick.

Doctor Butch is owned by Kenneth Jacobs.

The eighth race $20,000 B-1 Pace was captured by a revitalized Odds On Equuleus. Aggressively moving to the lead after a :28.3 tepid opening quarter, Odds On Equuleus asserted himself on the lead and would carry the field through middle fractions of :56.3 and 1:24 before turning for home in front.

With Long Live Rock on his back, Tim Tetrick asked the classy 5-year-old for speed and Odds On Equuleus responded and maintained his one length advantage through the stretch to score in 1:51.1.

Odds On Equuleus is trained by Tony Alagna, giving him a training double, and is owned by Odds On Racing. The win marked the fourth on the card for Tim Tetrick.

The sixth race, a $20,000 B-2/B-1 Handicap Pace saw Al’s Hammered rally from far off the pace to score a bounce-back win in 1:51, splashing home in a powerful :26.4.

Al’s Hammered was coming off a season that saw him win 15 of 29 starts and he makes his first start of 2015 a winning one. The 6-year-old Peter Tritton trainee was guided to victory by Ron Pierce for Harry von Knoblauch.

There were no winning tickets in the fifth race Jackpot Super Hi-5. The carryover into the Thursday program stands at $10,645.77. The 13th race jackpot went unclaimed and the carryover for race 13 on Thursday is $28,076.98. Post time for Thursday night is 7:15 p.m. and features the first round of the Super Bowl trotting series.