by James Witherite, Meadowlands media relations

East Rutherford, NJ — Limelight Beach, the 2014 Little Brown Jug winner, will make his seasonal debut in Saturday’s (Feb. 20) featured event at The Meadowlands after last week’s races — and his expected return to the track — were postponed due to extreme cold.

The 5-year-old gelded son of Somebeachsomewhere-Benear tackles seven others in the $20,000 upper-level pace and has been installed as the 3-1 morning line second choice in the evening’s eighth of 14 races.

As a 4-year-old, Limelight Beach only managed a pair of wins in 21 starts. Nonetheless, he maintained a string of minor placings in stakes events throughout North America, including a second-place finish in the Prix d’ Été at Hippodrome 3R and a third-place finish in the Canadian Pacing Derby at Mohawk. Yannick Gingras is reunited with the Ron Burke trainee, and the pair start from post eight.

Among the other top contenders are 5-2 morning line favorite Rockeyed Optimist (post seven, Tim Tetrick), who was just outkicked in his seasonal debut two weeks ago, and Ashley’s Husband (post two, Brett Miller), whose ferocious :25.4 last quarter propelled him to victory in the top pacing event that same night.

A pair of sub-featured $13,000 conditioned paces make up half of the late Pick-4 sequence, with third-level fields contesting the ninth and 11h races.

In the ninth event, Mark Capone trainee Kingofthejungle (post nine, Andy Miller) seeks to make amends after facing top-level competition, but will square off against Meadows invader Some Kinda Beach (post two, Jim Marohn Jr.) and Yonkers shipper UF Rockin Dragon (post six, Tetrick), both of which step down from tougher competition as well.

The 11th race is equally competitive, given the consistent success of Cobalt Man (post one, Tetrick) and Dune Dude (post five, Gingras) at this class along with Jacksrluckytoo (post six, Joe Bongiorno), who has proven a gritty contender on a consistent basis of late.

The pair of sub-featured events are the foundation of the late Pick-4, which carries a $50,000 guaranteed pool and begins in race nine. Earlier in the card, another Pick-4 and a Pick-5 boast $55,000 in additional guaranteed pools, while more than $123,000 in carryover money will await punters in the night’s two 20-cent Jackpot High 5 wagers should neither jackpot be claimed on Friday.

Post time for Saturday’s program is 6:35 p.m. (EST).