East Rutherford, NJ — Yannick Gingras drove four winners Friday night (Jan. 31) at the Meadowlands, and among them was Dayson, who took the featured $20,000 conditioned trot.

Dayson and driver Yannick Gingras take the Friday night feature at Meadowlands. Lisa photo.

“He’s such a nice horse that tries his best every time,” said Gingras.

Sure, Dayson did his job, no doubt, but so did Gingras, who gave his horse a perfect steer.

The first turn looked like a rugby scrum as Lagerfeld had rail position, Dayson was to that one’s outside and Obrigado was three wide and winging. Gingras opted to back Dayson off into the three-hole as Lagerfeld yielded to Obrigado, who hit the quarter while parked in :27.4.

“There was definitely more action than I thought there would be in the first turn,” said Gingras. “But I figured Dayson was the best and he proved it.”

Showing little patience, Gingras moved swiftly with Dayson to the top after vacating the rail at the three-eighths and cleared before the half as Obrigado was put in the pocket. Max was now on the move, gaining on the leader from first-over, but Dayson – who was able to rate the middle half in :58 – still had a length on that foe both at three-quarters and the head of the stretch.

Through the final three-sixteenths, Dayson showed his class, fending off a pesky Max to his outside and Obrigado to his inside, holding on determinedly to defeat Max by a neck in 1:54.1. Obrigado was third.

Dayson, a 7-year-old gelded son of Conway Hall-Nervey’s Taurus who is trained by Ron Burke, returned $3.20 to his backers as the odds-on favorite. He has now won 37-of-87 lifetime starts, good for earnings of $1,167,377 for owners Burke Racing Stable & Weaver Bruscemi, J&T Silva-Purnel&Libby and L. Karr.

A LITTLE MORE: If Gingras wins four, it’s a good bet Burke has had a good night, and the Big M’s leading trainer did just that, winning three on the card, all driven by Gingras. … The 50-cent Pick-4 saw big play with a total pool of $92,561, its biggest since Jan. 4, when $94,701 was pushed through the windows. … All-source handle was vigorous at $2,591,628, surpassing the $2.5-million mark for a second straight card. … Racing resumes Saturday at 7:15 p.m