Thoughts on Meadowlands Pace Night

I was planning on going from Long Island but with the threat of heavy thunderstorms I decided to stay home and watch on the TVG app on TV.

Obviously, the talk of the night was the DQ in the Pace. It was a night of inquiries. Most time you can go days without an inquiry. Pace night there were three or more.

Most were easy to resolve. The Pace wasn’t. After looking at the replays it looked to me that at the top of the stretch the 4 got rough gaited and caused the 6 to do the same causing interference behind him. The 6 didn’t do anything worse than the 4 but the 6 caused more trouble behind. The 4 caused the trouble. I feel it was a bad DQ.

it was a night of weird happenings. On the betting side of the equation I was annoyed that in the 1st race Donna Soprano and Beltassima were 8-5 and 4-5 with the horses on gate. As they started the last flash had Beltassima go 1-5 and Donna Soprano 3-1. At 3-1 I’d be interested. Not at 8-5 vs 4-5. Somehow someone sandbagged that bet to go at the last second?

The smallest betting pools are WPS, more money in exactas and triples and Pick 3, 4 or 5. That’s the reason I can’t play Yonkers with 4-1 dropping to 9-5 with seconds to post.

I also wanted to mention that I went up to Goshen on July 3. What a nice afternoon as the rain held off. My dad grew up in Goshen in the 1920s and 1930s so I knew all about the history of Goshen.

It was nice to see many young families there and see the interest the kids had in watching the horses. They had questions and it was fun answering their questions about equipment and what’s a trotter and a pacer.

Sad though that none of the older folks knew anything about Greyhound. Not many knew about the old mile track, Good Times Park. To them it was now a picnic area and a lot of it overgrown with weeds.

Goshen has a lot of construction going on. Young families moving in. It’s no longer the old country town, but it still nice with plenty of space.

We drove down to the Meadowlands to make it a doubleheader. Nice day, good friends and thinking of my dad, gone 24 years.

Bill Hartenstine / Farmingdale, NY

RE: Meadowlands’ drivers’ meeting

It’s almost painful to read this crap (full story here). Jeff Gural tries, but his efforts won’t mean anything. He believes the racing product was better the night after the meeting. What he is acknowledging is that the racing hasn’t been up to snuff before that night. Mr. Gingras made me laugh. He doesn’t agree 100 per cent with Mr. Gural, but he DOES agree that “holes shouldn’t be opened just because the outside driver is a friend of yours.” Who does he think he is kidding? He is a leading driver and gets holes opened for him ALL the time. In return, he opens holes for others ALL the time. He sounds like a bank robber who says people shouldn’t rob banks.

Gary Kay / harness owner, breeder and farm owner / thoroughbred owner, breeder and trainer. 

Agree with Don Tiger

I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Tiger (full story here) Charlie May was first interfered with by Southwind Gendry which caused interference with Charlie May thus causing all the chain reaction.

Donna Males / Brighton, ON

More on Meadowlands Pace DQ

There’s still a buzz about the Meadowlands Pace and we have so much to look forward to coming up. But after further review of the video provided to the public, I’d like to comment. Southwind Gendry was two wide the whole race. On the backstretch, the announcer says “Southwind Gendry’s now three wide, tough trip for him.” Going into the turn Gingras starts inching up on the leader, then begins to fall back. Gingras shakes the right line, and gets no response, Simultaneously, Gingras looks back, possibly making some degree of courteous communication to any driver, maybe saying, ‘I’m out of gas!’ Oh yes, and SG puts in fatigue-on-wet-track-conditions steps on the turn. Notably SG fought on gallantly, but also put in a few fatigue steps in deep stretch. Taking into consideration the dynamics of this race, and what is undeniably visible, the judges may not have taken in consideration what has been pointed out above. It would be speculative to point out Brett Miller should of sensed Gingras was in trouble and should of moved sooner. But a judge has years of expertise, experience and WISDOM to recognize a gallantly-fatigued horse. So I do not give them a pass because of time constraints, or a having to make a crucial decision on the fly.

In my humble opinion Gingras and his fatigued horse “UNWITTINGLY” caused the unfortunate result, of what we saw.

Nick Cantarella