by John Pawlak, USTA marketing director

East Rutherford, NJ — Chester Lebo, Jr.’s Major In Art and driver Brian Sears posted an upset win, at 6-1, in the $350,000 Woodrow Wilson Final for 2-year-old pacing colts on Friday night (August 1) at the Meadowlands.

The heavy favorite, Mysticism (Ron Pierce) had no early foot, but made a dramatic and sweeping — but futile — move on the final turn and finished third, behind Vertigo Hanover (Jody Jamieson).

USTA/Mark Hall photo

Major In Art was a 1:50.4 winner for Brian Sears in the Woodrow Wilson Final.

Sears, who has wrapped up his eighth consecutive Big M driving title, took the son of Art Major-Miami Spice (by Jate Lobell) to the lead at the quarter pole, timed in :26.2, and having never driven Major In Art before he wasn’t sure what might happen.

“I thought we might be third-best in here, but he’s just a green colt,” Sears said. “Eric came at me hard (Eric Goodell, driving Get It Now, who moved boldly after the half-mile mark), but I wasn’t going to let him by. I just used him as a blocker, and it worked.”

Get It Now “blocked” by making a game Emerald Express (Tim Tetrick) work much harder on the final turn, where Sears tapped his colt lightly — and he responded by sprinting clear at the head of the stretch and looked fresh after a :54.1 half and 1:22.2 three-quarters.

The 3-5 favorite, Mysticism, was in the middle of the racetrack, and when his name was mentioned by track announcer Sam McKee, Sears turned to look back for the favorite, and quickly realized he and not Pierce was going to be in the winner’s circle.

The winning time was 1:50.4, a new mark, and gave the Justin Lebo-trained youngster his third win in four starts. He has now won $206,400. Major In Art had finished second to Vertigo Hanover in last week’s Woodrow Wilson eliminations. The winning margin was three-quarters of a length.

Major In Art was bred in New Jersey by Southwind Farm.