from the USTA Communications Department

East Rutherford, NJ — Our Horse Cents Stables and Rossie Smith’s Quick Deal took advantage of a pocket trip to post a 1:52.4 score in the $50,000 Horse & Groom final for trotters on Saturday night (March 16) at Meadowlands Racetrack.

Driver Yannick Gingras and trainer Ron Burke made it a sweep of the series finals on Saturday at the Meadowlands when Quick Deal defeated Harbor Point (Ron Pierce) for his fourth win in seven season’s starts. The 5-year-old Revenue S-Photo Magic gelding has now earned $60.940 in 2013 and $205,043 lifetime.

Lisa photo

Quick Deal won the Horse & Groom final in 1:52.4 for Yannick Gingras.

Modern Family and Tim Tetrick were the fastest off the gate and took command of this field in an opening quarter of :26.4 with Quick Deal getting the perfect trip in second amd DW’s NY Yank (David Miller) in third.

The leaders remained in the same order at the :55.1 half-mile marker, but Gingras pulled Quick Deal to the outside down the backstretch and they were first on the outside at the 1:24.2 three-quarter pole.

From there Quick Deal took command, before having to hold off a late challenge from Harbor Point at the wire to win by a neck. Not Afraid rallied to be third for Corey Callahan and DW’s NY Yank finished fourth. No Less Than Magic (Pat Lachance) grabbed the final check and Modern Family faded to sixth.

“I always said he can sit good,” said Gingras of Quick Deal. “The minute the gate opens he’s actually a gentleman. He’ll sit, he’ll race from the back even. I’ve raced him out of a hole before. That wasn’t a concern to me. It was just making sure I wasn’t too close to the gate. I was a little farther from the gate tonight…I’d rather be three lengths off the gate than on top of it.

“Harbor Point was a really, really good horse early on when they got him at Chester. Actually, I wanted to buy that horse and they got the jump on me. That’s a nice horse; he kind of tailed off a little bit, I don’t know what his issues were, but he’s a real horse, too. My horse dug in and got it done.”

“He’s actually not bad to train,” added Ron Burke. “He’ll sit in a hole. Yannick said he’s raced him off the back before, but only when he made breaks!”

Sent off at 3-5 odds by the public, Quick Deal paid $3.40 to win.