by Carol Hodes, for the New Jersey Sire Stakes

Freehold, NJ — Meant To Be Me, who won all three of his prelims, has been installed as the 3-1 morning line favorite in the $85,000 New Jersey Sire Stakes Final for 3-year-old pacing colts and geldings on Saturday, October 25, at Freehold Raceway.

The son of McArdle will leave from post three with Yannick Gingras scheduled to driver for trainer Linda Toscano. The stake is carded as race seven.

Meant To Be Me campaigns in the name of Louis Maricante and Amante Standardbreds. He has four wins, three seconds and three thirds from 19 starts this year for earnings of $168,621 toward a career total of $365,788.

He took his mark of 1:51.1 this year, winning the $100,000 consolation for the Battle of the Brandywine at Harrah’s Chester.

This is the final event of the 2008 New Jersey Sire Stakes program which distributes about $7.5 million in purses annually.

The divisional stakes record for 3-year-old colts is 1:53.1 by Livestrong (Artiscape), which was set in 2006. The gelding mark of 1:52.2 was posted by Tiber Hanover (Cam’s Card Shark) in 2007.

Post-Horse-Sire-Driver-Trainer-ML
1-Dreams Are Real-Artsplace-David Miller-Erv Miller-7-2
2-Shoot First-Artsplace-Jeff Gregory-Don Niccum-6-1
3-Meant To Be Me-McArdle-Yannick Gingras-Linda Toscano-3-1
4-Tommys Shark-Cam’s Card Shark-George Brennan-Robert Siegelman-10-1
5-Proper Respect-McArdle-David Miller-Carlo Poliseno-9-2
6-McCedes-McArdle-Daniel Dube-Chris Ryder-8-1
7-Genuwine-Cam’s Card Shark-Andy Miller-Erv Miller-5-1
8-Mr Nice Guy-Western Ideal-Anthony Morgan-Nat Varty-12-1