East Rutherford, NJ — With two GSY events carded for Friday night (Jan. 20) at The Meadowlands, some normalcy came back to the series as both winners paid in the double digits.

In the first race on the card, 10 pacers went to post and there weren’t more than two leavers and everyone found a spot as the field headed to the quarter pole.

Longshot Valiant Ivy (Dakota Jackson) set some ambitious fractions for the first half and was unable to sustain his momentum as the field entered the stretch. This looked to be a prime position for the pocket sitter Harry Terror (Lee Morris) to take the lead and he looked like a winner close to home but was nipped on the inside by 10-1 longshot A Deal’s A Deal (James Slendorn).

It was a four way photo finish at the wire but after the judges reviewed the photo, these two finished a nose apart of each other. Rounding out the trifecta and also in that photo was Always A Panther (Joe Lee). The mile went in 1:55.2.

The winner, a 4-year old gelding, is owned by Slendorn, trainer Kelvin Harrison and Lst Stables.

In the fifth race on the card, there was once again only two horses who left aggressively for the front and after a sizzling first quarter in :26.4, Sports Hero (Nicole Dicostanzo) overtook Claytons Bettor N (Slendorn) and the rest was history.

She kept her foot on the pedal and overcame all challengers to win by a head in 1:52.4. She had a tough time pulling this Sportswriter gelding up as he went another mile around the Big M before entering the winner’s circle. Closing hard for a good second was William Mcwhiskers (Peter Kleinhans) and Claytons Bettor N was able to hold on to third.

The winner is a 7-year old gelding, co-owned and trained by Dicostanzo along with Joseph Bongiorno LLC.

The GSY is scheduled to be back in action next Friday at The Meadowlands. Post time is scheduled for 6:20 p.m.