from the Meadowlands Media Relations Department

East Rutherford, NJ — The New Jersey Sires Stakes will field three divisions of sophomore trotters to kick off the 2016 state-bred season on Friday night (May 20) at The Meadowlands.

USTA/Mark Hall photo

Southwind Frank will make his 3-year-old debut in NJSS action on Friday.

The headliner is Southwind Frank, consensus choice for this season’s top trotting stakes including the Aug. 6 Hambletonian. The son of Muscle Hill has had a pair of conditioning qualifiers in anticipation of his seasonal debut and will leave from post position four in a super-sized field of a dozen in this $25,000 leg (race six).

Ron Burke trains Southwind Frank for himself as Burke Racing, along with Weaver Bruscemi, Our Horse Cents Stable and J&T Silva. Yannick Gingras resumes his position as the champion colt’s driver.

The fillies split into fields of eight in the second race and seven in the fourth, each for a $20,000 purse.

Gingras has the logical favorite in the first division where he’ll steer Breeders Crown winner All The Time for the Jimmy Takter stable. A winner of nearly a half million dollars at two, All The Time races for owner/breeders Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld.

Wildflower got a late start but finished her freshman year strong with an upset win in the Kindergarten final and a solid fifth place finish in the Goldsmith Maid. Ake Svanstedt trains and drives the Muscle Hill lass for himself, Douglas Sipple and Mal and Janet Burroughs, LLC.

Friday is Military Appreciation Night at The Meadowlands where our veterans will be recognized for their service.

The standard guarantee on horizontal wagers is in place, with free program pages for the late Pick-4 available courtesy of TrackMaster and the last race Hi-5 Super Jackpot stands at $222,459 to open the weekend.

Post time is 7:15 p.m.