from the Meadowlands Media Relations Department

East Rutherford, NJ — The elements came together perfectly for some fast times in East Rutherford, N.J., on Friday evening (June 10). With temperatures approaching 90 degrees and a great deal of humidity, the one mile oval at The Meadowlands was lightning fast for the 12-race program.

The mile that had the grandstand buzzing came in the sixth race, an upper-level conditioned trotting event. A field of seven accomplished trotters with plenty of class lined up behind the gate, including the prohibitive favorite Master Of Law, who was sent off as the 1-2 choice.

Master Of Law is known for his explosive late kick, but tonight would change his tactics and take control of the race as the field went past the opening quarter. From there, the 5-year-old gelding would establish strong fractions of :27.2, :55.1 and 1:23.3 before turning for home with a two length lead.

World Cup was tracking from third position and Joe Bongiorno angled his trotter in the stretch and as soon as he was shown racetrack, World Cup found another gear. Master Of Law fought back gamely and the two hit the wire together, noses apart, but the nose in front belonged to World Cup, stopping the timer in 1:50.4. Master Of Law was a game second with the mare Clementine Dream third.

World Cup won for the 17th time in his career, with earnings of $332,845. The 1:50.4 clocking was a new lifetime mark for the 6-year-old son of Yankee Glide. He is owned by Carly Roman and trained by Bob Bongiorno.

Another mile that lit up the teletimer came in the first race, where Beach Granny stormed to a 1:49 winning performance in a filly and mare conditioned pacing event.

Beach Granny cleared the lead past the half-mile pole in :54.1, paced a powerful :27.1 third quarter while leading the field and was able to fend off Wicked Little Minx to score in a lifetime best performance by nearly four seconds for Scott Zeron and trainer Steve Elliott.

In other action, Aldebaran Eagle took a big step on the Road to the Hambletonian with a blowout win against a strong conditioned trotting group in 1:52.1, a lifetime best performance. The stakes winner as a 2-year-old took over on the backstretch and never looked back, trotting home willingly in :28.

Aldebaran Eagle is owned by Aldebaran Park Inc. and driven by Corey Callahan for trainer Jonas Czernyson.

There were two divisions of the second leg of the Cathedra Dot Com for pacing mares on Friday night. The first division saw a repeat winner in Real Drama who set a new lifetime mark, winning in 1:50.4. The second division was a runaway as That Woman Hanover bottomed out the field to score by many, also in 1:50.4. The $20,000 final will take place on Friday (June 19).

At the betting windows, total handle was up nearly 10 percent, with the on-track handle up nearly 40 percent as nearly 10,000 spectators flooded the Big M oval to watch the camels and ostriches do battle.

Both 20 cent jackpot Super Hi-5 carryovers continued to grow, as the fifth race carryover swelled to $155,451 and the last race carryover is now standing at $129,920.

Racing returns with a 13-race program on Saturday, with first post time at 7:15 p.m.