Driver Dexter Dunn was electric at the Meadowlands Saturday night, and so was the action, as Dunn scored four times on the program and wagering reached the magic $3-million mark for the fifth time in 2019.
Dunn got his night off to a quick start, sweeping the Early Daily Double with a pair of Tim Lancaster trainees. Smileandsaycheese came from well off the pace to take the opener, a conditioned pace, in 1:52.1 at odds of 12-1 before 2-1 favourite Four Staces completed the Daily Double – which paid $85.80 – in a claiming handicap pace in 1:52.4.
The New Zealand native swept another Daily Double, this one beginning in race four, scoring with the Chris Ryder-trained American World in 1:53 in a non-winners of one pace as the 2-1 second choice before winning with Rather Swell, the 7-5 public choice, for trainer Mike Watson in a claiming handicap pace in 1:54.1. That Daily Double returned $20.80.
All-source wagering totaled $3,082,637, good for the fifth-best night of action at the Big M – as well as the industry – this year.
A total of $313,088 was bet on the opener, $345,218 on the fourth race ($103,276 in the Exacta pool alone) and $317,809 on the fifth as those three races accounted for $976,115 of the evening’s action.
The 50-Cent Pick-4 pool reached six figures for the seventh time in 11 tries, as $101,640 was poured into the pot.
A LITTLE MORE: Dover Downs invader Highalator destroyed a high-class conditioned field of pacers in the eighth race by five-and-three-quarter lengths. Driver Richard Still guided the Jenny Bier trainee to the easy speed win in 1:50.2 as the 6-5 favourite for his 23rd victory in 55 lifetime starts.
Rebel Rouser made the lead while parked at the quarter and went down the road from there in an ultra-competitive non-winners of four on the pace in race 12. The Robert Cleary trainee sprinted his final quarter in :26.4 on the way to his fourth-straight score. Andy McCarthy guided the winner to a lifetime-best mile time of 1:51.1.
Racing resumes Friday, March 29 at 7:15 p.m., featuring the second edition of the 20-Cent Can-Am Pick-4.
(Meadowlands Racetrack)