Return of Lexus Kody and open sophomore stakes at Big M are a welcome sight
by Brett Sturman
It’s been a grind as usual throughout the winter and early spring at The Meadowlands, but there will be a gradual shift in the quality of racing as the Championship Meet starts tonight (May 1).
The track has done its best as it always does in cobbling together the best and most competitive fields possible with the horses that it must work with, but the higher volume of lower quality races throughout recent months has been noticeable. As has the impact to the track’s handle.
Last Saturday for example, hampered by not only some lower-class conditions not befitting a Saturday night card but also a series of short fields in the New Jersey Home Grown races and overall miserable weather, The Meadowlands posted an uncustomary low $2.2 million in handle for the card.
The good news is in a much-needed turnaround, the card this Saturday looks vastly different. Gone are all the bottom-level TrackMaster-rated 68 races, and what it’s been replaced with is a card that mirrors what you would expect with the start of Championship Meet Weekend.
In addition to Platinum Division New Jersey Sire Stakes races for both 3-year-old pacing divisions, the Saturday card also features the Dexter Cup and the Lady Suffolk, as well as the return of 2025’s Trotter of the Year, Lexus Kody.
Going in the final of the JL Cruze in race 8, the race featuring Lexus Kody kicks off the second of a newly added Pick-5 which spans races 8 through 12. Unlike this exact time last year where Lexus Kody was regarded as a longer chance in the free-for-all trotting ranks, it will be the complete opposite this year.
It’s hard to believe now, but last year Lexus Kody was 26-1 in the Cutler Memorial while a rival he will face on Saturday, Antognoni S, was the Cutler favorite. They’ll be joined, presumably in two weeks, by last year’s Cutler champion, Periculum, but first things first. Beginning with the JL Cruze against not only Antognoni S but also the return of Ari Ferrari J, can Lexus Kody set the tone for another dream season? Last year as a 7-year-old he achieved $1.3 million in earnings whereas his entire career prior was just shy of $600,000. What’s also quite of interest is that, Ron Burke who trains both top trotters, has Yannick Gingras on Antognoni S and in what would be a driver change from last year, Dexter Dunn on Lexus Kody.
The $157,125 Dexter Cup at The Meadowlands is intriguing for several reasons. With the unfortunate closing of Freehold Raceway in 2024, The Meadowlands offered a rebirth of sorts for the Dexter Cup. It’s a race that has long been billed as the start of the road to the Hambletonian, though for at least the past couple of decades with limited exceptions at Freehold, the race only produced fringe stakes players at best.
There are only eight horses in the race this year as nominations were first made a couple of years ago when it wasn’t known that the race would be moved to a mile track, but those horses that will contest the race tomorrow (Saturday) already appear generally better than what the race has produced of late.
Going in race 10, perhaps strategically kicking off the second Pick-4 as similar logic to race 8, the race features a number of Hambletonian-eligible horses and is led by a legitimate stakes horse in the Svanstedt-trained Magic Punk. Earning over $220,000 last year as a freshman, Magic Punk is one of those Hambletonian hopefuls and was second to eventual divisional winner Apex in the $368,950 Peter Haughton at Hoosier Park, and I believe would have been one of the favorite in the G1 Valley Victory to finish out last year but was scratched from that race. Svanstedt also sends out Nordic Dancer S, who, out of the pacing mare That Woman Hanover, is a half-sibling to last year’s Hambletonian winner Nordic Catcher S.
Also in the race, Andrew Harris sends out last year’s Breeders Crown finalist and Hambletonian-nominated Cambridge Hanover. Marcus Melander sends out a couple of hopefuls in Midwind Chimp and Neighver Punt, both of whom are nominated to the Hambletonian. Likewise, Ron Burke sends out Who’s Blue Eyes. It’s nice to see the Dexter Cup return to a higher level of quality, and next year should be even better not just in terms of quality, but also more entrants as 2027 will mark the first year since it was known at early nomination time the new placement of the race.
The same that was said for the Dexter Cup could be said for the 3-year-old trotting fillies in the Lady Suffolk. As the Dexter Cup counterpart now at The Meadowlands, this year’s edition pits two Hambletonian Oaks hopefuls against one another, those being Busy Miss Lissy S and All Time Trot S, both from the barn of Svanstedt.
Having closed out last year with a win in the Goldsmith Maid here at The Meadowlands, All Time Trot S is already a Grade 1 winner. In that same race, barnmate Busy Miss Lissy S, a 1:53.3 winner last year at 2, was a close third. With this caliber of horse, for the first time in a long time, you can put both the Dexter Cup and Lady Suffolk as the first legitimate prep races on the road to this year’s Hambletonian and Hambletonian Oaks.
Saturday’s card also features a full field of 10 for the pacing colts in the NJSS Platinum Division with potential Meadowlands Pace contenders, and an almost full field of nine for the same level for the pacing fillies. There’s plenty of reasons to be excited as the Championship Meet thankfully begins.
