East Rutherford, NJ – The Exit 16W has put a jolt of excitement into the Thursday night programs at The Meadowlands, and leg two of the series brought a pair of mild upsets in two of the Pop Up series five splits on a chilly night at the mile oval.
In the $29,150 division for trotters who were winners of four but not seven pari-mutuel races, Hey Porter worked out an ideal pocket trip to take down 1-2 favorite A Real Legend, who was looking for a second consecutive victory as the odds-on choice.
After Hey Porter led at the quarter while parked in :28.2, driver Brett Beckwith must have been thrilled to see A Real Legend move past him and he sat right behind the favorite all the way until mid-stretch, when Beckwith then had enough room along the inside to shoot Hey Porter through and win easily by two lengths in 1:52.4, lowering his previous lifetime best by two-and-one-fifth seconds. A Real Legend held second with Scudo Hanover third.
“Last week was a tougher trip first-over,” said Beckwith of when A Real Legend bested Hey Porter by a length. “Tonight, it was a better trip. We got to follow Jason (Bartlett, driving A Real Legend), and when my horse got clear, he exploded. My horse, he’s a Cadillac, he loves his job. He won that race with the (ear) plugs in.”
As the 7-2 second choice, Hey Porter returned $9.40 to his backers. The 3-year-old gelded son of Bar Hopping-Chelsees A Winner is trained by Enrico Robinson and now has six wins from 25 lifetime starts, good for earnings of $242,164.
Bourbonista S won the $25,000 split for trotters who were winners of two but not more than four races by doing the same thing Hey Porter did. And at a similar payoff.
The 4-year-old daughter of Face Time Bourbon-Affinity Kronos, who is a Noel Daley trainee, was put on the lead early by pilot Johnathan Ahle, hitting the quarter in :28.3.
Ahle then yielded the top to Bartlett, who was driving 4-5 public choice Benny J, who was shipping in from Yonkers after facing tougher in that track’s Grand Prix Series.
They stayed that way down the backside and into the stretch, when Ahle popped Bourbonista S out of the two-hole with a little more than three-sixteenths-of-a-mile to go, and easily sailed past the favorite on the way to a two-length score in 1:54. Benny J was second with She’s Spicy third.
It was Bourbonista S’s first win on American soil since her arrival from Sweden in early fall.
“She’s pretty versatile,” said Ahle. “She gets off the car well. (In her last start) she wasn’t good on the front (when second). She wasn’t interested. She had a helmet to follow tonight and responded. Jason looked like he had some left but mine felt good and had some trot left.”
As the 7-2 third choice, Bourbonista S paid $9.20 to win. She now has five wins in 20 lifetime tries, and has earnings of $91,588.
NO REGULAR JOE: Followers of Big M TV’s back-paddock interviewer Joe Romanelli wore out a path to the windows, as “Joe Ro” correctly selected six winners, four exactas, two trifectas and one superfecta on the card.
Romanelli’s best bet Clear For Landing scored in the seventh race and paid $4, while his best price of the night came in the ninth with Hey Porter, who paid $9.40.
A LITTLE MORE: Braxten Boyd sat atop the driver leaderboard at night’s end with four winners. … Per Engblom topped the trainers with a pair of walks down victory lane. … There were two winning tickets sold on the 20-cent Survivor Pick-7, and the sequence didn’t look extremely difficult to have. Winner’s odds were 2-1, 9-2, 2-1, 2-1, 1-1, 1-1 and 7-2. The payout was a handsome $3,047.14. … All-source handle on the 12-race program totaled $1,428,708. … Racing resumes Friday at 6:20 p.m. (EST).