East Rutherford, NJ — There were three GSY pace races on Friday night (Sept. 2) at The Meadowlands and the action didn’t disappoint.

In the first race, there were several leavers trying to get to the top spot, a fast first half-mile and a horse parked the entire mile. In the end, horses were coming from two-, three-, and even four-wide and further out at the top of the stretch but they all were unable to catch Ferdinand A (James Slendorn), who won by a nose in 1:54. A hard charging Chief Of Staff (Chris Petrelli) finished second at long odds and Takeittotheface (Dave Yarock) rounded out the trifecta.

The winner is a 9-year-old gelding is owned by Slendorn, along with trainer Kelvin Harrison.

In the fifth race, the start of the race looked similar to the one in the first. A few leavers and one horse being parked the entire mile. This outcome had closers coming from way back to finish first and second and the long time leader, Make It Big (Newton “Yogi” Sheridan), faded to fourth. The winner, Doc Semalu (Tony Ciuffetelli) came from way back to win by a length in 1:55. Longshot Big Bad Bill (Jacob Stillwell) finished second and Gentlemensattitude (Juan Cano) rounded out the trifecta.

The winner is an 8-year-old gelding owned by Gerald Orrico and is trained by Symon Spicer.

The seventh race and final GSY race of the evening featured more of the same with a speed duel for the first half-mile but River Dali (Juan Cano) would not let anyone get to the lead and in the end he was able to stave off all closers to hold onto a 2-3/4 length victory in 1:53.1. So Take That (John Calabrese), the post time favorite, closed to finish second and Cliffhanger (Peter Kleinhans) got up for third.

The winner is a 5-year-old gelding owned by R.B.H. Ventures Inc. and trained by Cano.

The GSY series will be back next Friday night at The Meadowlands with a scheduled post time of 6:20 p.m.