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EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – Ruthless Hanover (Somebeachsomewhere-Rockaroundthetrack) knows a thing or two about rocking the clock, and the speedball from the Tom Cancelliere barn had his blazing pace on display in the Saturday night harness racing feature at The Meadowlands while winning the $30,000 winners-over.
The last time the 7-year-old gelding raced was at Pocono Downs on Aug. 17, and Ruthless Hanover had an electrifying performance, going parked past the half on the way to a 1:48 win in a $100,000 invitational on Sun Stakes Saturday.
The owner of a 1:46.3 lifetime best, which was registered last year at Harrah’s Philadelphia, Ruthless Hanover stopped the clock Saturday at The Big M in 1:47.2, after cutting out fractions of :26.1, :54.2 and 1:20.4.
Driver Andy Miller backed down the pace some after the quarter, which likely helped in withstanding a minor challenge late from Mirage Hanover, who rallied well after going a three-hole trip before tipping off the rail at the head of the stretch.
“He felt super; really good,” said Miller of ‘Ruthless’. “He just cruised around there. When that horse [Mirage Hanover] come to him, he dug right in and fought him off.
“I got roughed up pretty good that first quarter there, so I wanted to give him a little breather that second quarter and we took off from there. [In the stretch] he felt super. He’s a complete professional. He does everything you ask of him.”
RUTHLESS HANOVER REPLAY
Ruthless Hanover paid $3.20 to win as the 3-5 favorite as he upped his lifetime stats to 26 wins from 61 starts, good for earnings of just over $730,000 for owner John Cancelliere. He hit the wire three-quarters-of-a-length in front of Mirage Hanover. Chimichurri N, the winner of the feature last week, finished third.
A LITTLE MORE: Bruce Baker, a member of the Meadowlands Amateur Driving Club, Brad Chisholm, Jason Bartlett and Miller all tied atop the driver leaderboard with two winners apiece. … Jeff Cullipher was the top trainer with two walks down victory lane. … All-source handle on the 14-race card totaled $2,376,282. …
Live harness racing will now take a five-week break before returning on Fri., Oct. 18 with a special day card featuring Breeders Crown eliminations. Post time is 12:30 p.m. … After one week of no live racing, Thoroughbred turf action comes to The Big M on Friday, Sept. 20, with racing every Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. … Oct. 18 marks the final card for the “runners” on a day that will see live harness by day and live turf racing at night.
For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.
by Dave Little, for The Meadowlands
