Stakes season set to sizzle following brutal Big M winter
by Debbie Little
When Daylight Saving Time began last Sunday (March 8), it signaled that, despite this weekend’s cold temperatures, winter was ending, spring is coming, and at The Meadowlands, that means it’s almost time for stakes season to start.
Despite how competitive racing has been this winter at the mile oval, things should get kicked up a notch as The Big M’s perennial top drivers return from hard-earned holidays.
According to a press release sent out by The Big M on Friday (March 13), the track’s president/chief executive officer Jeff Gural has already reached out to their top drivers to ask them to come back and drive starting on March 27.
The presence of those drivers generally signals a change in the quality of the competition on the track, especially since a little over a month from now, The Big M will kick off five straight Saturday stakes nights, starting with the Home Grown Series for 3-year-old male and female pacers on April 25.
May kicks off The Meadowlands Championship Meet with the first Saturday (May 2) always a big day/night combination for both thoroughbred and standardbred sophomores, as fans will pack the track in East Rutherford, NJ, during the day to watch and wager on the simulcast of the 152nd edition of the Kentucky Derby from Churchill Downs, followed by a live evening card on track that features The Big M’s first graded stakes race of the season, the Dexter Cup (Grade 3).
The Dexter Cup, for 3-year-old male trotters, will be featured alongside the Lady Suffolk, its companion race for 3-year-old filly trotters, as well as the first leg of the New Jersey Sire Stakes (NJSS) for 3-year-old pacers.
Leg 2 of New Jersey Sires Stakes (NJSS) action for sophomore pacers will take place on May 9, succeeded the following week by the Arthur J. Cutler Memorial (Grade 3) and Garden State Stakes for 3-year-old colt and filly trotters.
The Cutler kicks off the Grand Circuit season for older trotters and in its 28 previous editions, has never failed to deliver top performers and exciting finishes.
According to Ron Burke, 2025 Dan Patch Trotter of the Year Lexus Kody is being aimed for the Cutler.
If “Kody” picks up where he left off last season, he should be the one to beat, however, he did finish second by a neck to Periculum in last year’s Cutler.
According to the conditions for the Cutler, the 11 highest 2025-26 combined money winners — using USTA records — declared will race at a distance of one mile.
Last year, Aetos Kronos S did not make the top 11 cutoff based on money, so perhaps that one has something to prove this year should he return at the same high level.
For older mare trotters, the first leg of the Miss Versatility Series (Grade 3) will be featured on May 23 alongside the NJSS finals for 3-year-old pacers and the first leg of NJSS action for sophomore trotters.
With the retirement from racing of M-M’s Dream, who won two of the last three Miss Versatility finals (2023 and 2025), the door should be open for standout rivals Elista Hanover, 2025 Dan Patch Older Female Trotter of the Year Warrawee Michelle, and Nelsonbriteagle NO, who won the Miss Versatility final in 2024.
Legs 2, 3, and 4 of the Miss Versatility Series will take place at The Meadowlands on July 11, Aug. 1, and Sept. 4, respectively, before the final on Sept. 24 at the Delaware (Ohio) County Fairgrounds on Little Brown Jug Day.
