East Rutherford, NJ — The skies opened up before the first post on Friday night (Aug. 2) at The Meadowlands and delayed the start of the card by about an hour. That didn’t stop the hottest driver on the amateur circuit from winning both Hambletonian Amateur Drivers trotting events on the card.
Newton “Yogi” Sheridan continues to have a record type of year, as he already has 45 wins on the season with several months remaining. The rain/weather delay never stopped Yogi Berra in baseball from winning and neither did this for Yogi Sheridan. For the bettors, they were correct in these events, as the post time favorite won both, which is a rarity on the circuit.
Starting from post position 10 in the first race and getting away eighth, Yogi sat patiently for the first quarter of a mile before slowly grinding his way towards the leaders up the backstretch. Still fourth around the final turn, some three lengths off the leaders, he tipped his trotter and post time favorite, Money Matters, to gather momentum and collar the long time leader, Bacardi (Anthony Beltrami), to win by two lengths. Longshot Snowman Hanover (Todd Whitney) rounded out the trifecta. This mile was trotted in 1:56.2.
The winner is a 5-year-old mare, owned by Robert Weinstein and trained by Richard Johnson.
For his encore presentation in the fifth race, Sheridan left from the eight post and grinded his way to the lead after the quarter pole, which went in :28.2 over the upgraded good track. After that, he was just a passenger as he won by 8-1/4 lengths with Gotwuteverittakes. The second choice, Love This Bar (Bruce Baker), got up for second over Woolco (Robert Krivelin). This mile went in a superb 1:53.4.
Ricky Bucci trains and owns the winner, an 8-year-old gelding.
The MADC series will be back once the track reopens in a few weeks.