The Meadowlands Breakfast With The Babies

East Rutherford, NJ – Breakfast With The Babies went post-ward on Friday morning (July 12) at 10:00 am on this Meadowlands Pace weekend, due to the detention requirements for Saturday night’s harness racing stakes.  The track was rated good, dulled by overnight rains with a negligible breeze, the temps were in the 70’s.

Myonlylove (Gimpanzee) opened the day’s racing with a 1:56.1 win, closing sharply through a :28.1 final quarter, for Scott Zeron who threaded the filly through an opening mid-stretch. Xalapa (Tim Tetrick / Lucas Wallin) and Winnpanzee (Trond Smedshammer) came right with the winner late for minor placings. Myonlylove is trained by Linda Toscano for Brittany Farms and Marvin Katz who placed the winning bid of $180,000 at the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale (LEX) to secure her from breeder Coyote Wynd Farms.

Rita Dawns Halo (Googoo Gaagaa) and driver Andy McCarthy came to life in her third try today, leading all the way through even fractions to get a nice 1:55.2 record, trotting home in :28.2 under her own power. Party Line (Marcus Melander) followed the winner throughout and held sway for second, despite drifting late.

Tony Alagna trains the winner for Kenny Jacobs who shelled out $102,000 (LEX) to br eeders Steve Stewart and Marti Ala-Seppala for the filly.

RITA DAWNS HALO REPLAY

The third race was decided when the $250,000 (LEX) Muscle Hill filly Get It All (Marcus Melander) edged past the $10,000 (LEX) Six Pack filly Getting You Home (Zeron / Toscano) who had done all the work setting all the fractions of the 1:56 mile, in the shadow of the wire.

Both fillies demonstrated game determination, Get It All coming in off a 1:58.1 Meadowlands win two weeks ago while Getting You Home had a pair of Scioto qualifying wins on her card and was likely auditioning for round two of the New Jersey Sires Stakes (NJSS). Brixton Medical, Marvin Katz and the Hatfields own the winner with Mr. Katz taking a breeder’s credit along with Al Libfeld.

GET IT ALL REPLAY

Naming a Standardbred Flightline may be construed as setting the bar a touch high, but breeder Steve Jones is familiar with heights, so along with partners Mary Kinsey Arnold and Paul Bordogna, they placed the moniker on a son of Walner, the first colt from the stakes winning Hey Blondie.

Andy and Julie Miller liked what they saw enough to plunk down $220,000 (LEX) for the colt and so far, he is looking like a bargain. Off a crisp second in his first start, today Flightline settled third early for Andy, moved up when others broke, had the lead by the 1:27 three quarters then cruised home in 28 seconds flat to take a 1:55 mark with the greatest of ease. Hey Porter (Anibal Boras/Alagna) trotted along steadily throughout to wind up second. The Millers own Flightline along with Patrick Hoopes, TLP Stables and Ms. Arnold stayed in on the colt.

FLIGHTLINE REPLAY

Pacing colts put on a show in their only race this morning. Blue Onyx (Andy Miller / Alagna) sat a nice trip behind Strangerinthenight (A. McCarthy / Alagna) through solid fractions, then ground past that stubborn rival while drifting slightly, allowing a seam for the speedy Fusion (Yannick Gingras / Nancy Takter) to slip between them, but was resolute to the wire for the 1:52.3 win with a :26.2 final quarter in a dazzler.

From the first crop of 2020 Horse of the Year, Tall Dark Stranger, Blue Onyx was bred by Crawford Farms Racing and sold for $100,000 (LEX) to trainer Tony Alagna along with partners Pryde Stables, Brad Grant, Crawford Farms Racing and William Beattie.

BLUE ONYX REPLAY

Filly pacers closed out the day when Chakra (Lather Up) and Anibal Boras won determinedly in a two-move 1:52.4 effort, sprinting home in :27 to get by stablemate Long Hot Summer off the turn then digging in to keep both Faze (Gingras / Takter) and Huntingfortreasure (Tetrick / Schnittker) at bay late.

The gritty filly sold for $25,000 at Harrisburg to trainer Tony Alagna and Robbie Pryde as Pryde Stables, Inc, she was bred by Crawford Farms, LLC.

CHAKRA REPLAY

Well, the “Greatest Party in Harness Racing”, Meadowlands Pace weekend is here, and begins tonight with nine divisions of the freshman NJSS events then continues on Saturday with the Meadowlands Pace and its imposing under card of stakes.

Read all about it and get your free programs here.

For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.

by Nick Salvi, for The Meadowlands