Favourites slain in NJSS at The Meadowlands

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – Go Boom (Muscle Hill-Ilia) and Reckless Abandon (Cattlewash-Reclamation) both defeated short-priced favorites Friday night at The Meadowlands as leg two of the New Jersey Sire Stakes for harness racing 2-year-olds of each sex and gait had seven divisions, with each sporting a purse of $25,000.

Go Boom won the first of two colt and gelding trots in 1:54.1 for driver Dexter Dunn and trainer Marcus Melander. Go Boom was a strong second to Hidalgo a week ago, and that mile proved to be enough to get him ready to win.

After staying close to the action from the start, Go Boom moved to the lead at the top of the stretch and easily held sway to the wire, winning by 2 lengths over Yannick G Kemp. Hidalgo, the 1-5 favorite, was coming at the eventual winner in deep stretch, but went off stride nearing the wire and finished ninth in the 10-horse field. But he wasn’t catching the winner either way.

“He raced very well tonight again as he did last week,” said Melander of Go Boom. “Last week, he got a little lonely on the front [when he finished second], so I couldn’t be happier with how he’s been racing in these first two career starts.”

GO BOOM REPLAY

Go Boom returned $9.40 to win as the 7-2 second choice in the wagering.

In the lone filly pace, trainer Brett Pelling’s Reckless Abandon, off a traffic-marred second as the 7-5 chalk behind Bequeath, scored some revenge against that foe this time around, scoring as the 3-2 second choice ($5 to win) as the 4-5 Bequeath was trapped along the inside turning for home and had to settle for fourth.

It didn’t look all that great for Reckless Abandon in the early going sitting last in the eight-horse field past the quarter, but driver Todd McCarthy got into a live flow before exploding off cover from second-over in the stretch to go on to an easy 2¾-length win over Worklifebalance in 1:52.1.

“I wasn’t happy about getting away eighth, but that :27 opening quarter [put up by Eightsevensix] gave me some hope,” said Pelling. “She is very slick and showed real talent all along.”

RECKLESS ABANDON REPLAY

SLIP ME FIVE: The other five NJSS winners on the card were:

• Filly trot (Div. 1) – R Charm (Propulsion-Jewels In Hock), driver Scott Zeron, trainer Linda Toscano, 1:54.1 (paid $7.40 as the 5-2 second choice in the wagering)
• Filly trot (Div. 2) – Spicy Nice (Tactical Landing-Maven), Andy McCarthy, Nancy Takter, 1:54.3 ($8 as the 3-1 second choice)
• Colt and Gelding trot (Div. 2) – Tactical Dynasty (colt by Tactical Landing-Dynasty), Yannick Gingras, Ron Burke, 1:53.2 ($4.40 as the 6-5 favorite)
• Filly trot (Div. 3) – Walspea (Walner-Speak To Me), Dunn, Trond Smedshammer, 1:54.3 ($32.80 as the 15-1 fourth choice)
• Colt and Gelding pace (lone division) – Power Code (colt by Cattlewash-Code In), Dunn, Nifty Norman, 1:51.2 ($2.20 as the 1-9 favorite)

A LITTLE MORE: Dunn led the driver colony with four winners on the program. He now has 57 wins on the year, good for fourth on The Big M driver dash-victory list. … All-source handle totaled $3,067,135 on the 14-race card. There have been 56 programs conducted at The Meadowlands this year, with 39 of them seeing wagering bust the $3-million barrier. … Racing resumes Saturday at 6:20 p.m.

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

by Dave Little, for The Meadowlands