Derick Giwner

It recently came to my attention that people miss me. It is always nice to feel wanted and apparently my Saturday selections from the Meadowlands are in higher demand than I thought. Quite a few people have approached me lately asking why I stopped making picks for Saturday and when I would start again. First off, let me say that my Saturday replacement, Jay Bergman, is a first-rate handicapper and I would be glad to use his picks to accompany my handicapping. Secondly, my Saturday selections should return in late March or April.

Like many others I am eagerly awaiting the opening of the New Meadowlands grandstand being built on the current backstretch of the track. Currently scheduled to open in November of this year, the new facility will feature some first-rate amenities and great sight lines for viewing the action.

Captaintreacherous was the golden boy of the 2012 rookie pacing crop. The son of superstar Somebeachsomewhere earned $918,253 while winning 8 of 10 races during a spectacular campaign which was only tarnished by a Breeders Crown defeat. Captaintreacherous enters this year as the winter book favorite to win most of the big events. The North America Cup, Meadowlands Pace, Adios and Breeders Crown are all his for the taking. The sky is the limit. Or is it?

Amidst all of the early season success at the Meadowlands, one thing has been eating at me. I just do not understand the need or reasoning for carding 12-horse fields at the distance of one mile. For a short time last year while Freehold was closed, the track experimented by carding 14-horse races at 1 ½ miles for $7,500 claimers. While having four trailers (when Meadowlands gets more than 10 horses they must start from the second tier) and racing cheaper horses at the longer distance wasn’t ideal, those races provided some visually exciting on-track results.

Speed is the name of the game. Trips, drivers, classification and other factors are all important, but if your horse is not fast enough the rest is a moot point. As a harness racing nerd of sorts, the speed angle led me to some research on track records. About 90% of the tracks in North America list records on their websites. Going from site to site, I compiled a list of the fastest of the fastest at each track (I take no blame for inaccurate information or tracks that were omitted because they do not provide the information on their site).