Derick Giwner

Friday night’s opening of the New Meadowlands featured a few rocky moments but ultimately hit the one mark that mattered – improvement in handle. Total handle for the 12-race card was $2,166,584; an average of $180,548 per race. Last year the track handled $2,266,921 for a 13-race card on opening Friday; an average of $174,378 per race. On-track handle was up an impressive 55 percent when comparing the two dates- $380,499 versus $245,139.

Finally! The Meadowlands is back. Make that the New Meadowlands. No matter what you want to call it – The Big M, the track by the swamp – the Meadowlands returns to action on Friday, January 6 with 12 big races and full fields.

As handicappers in the racing world we have plenty of variables to decipher: weather, trips, intent, and much more. Along the way we are left with no choice but to place our faith in certain constants, though. One of those is charted past performance lines. We take for granted that the information contained in each past performance line is accurate. What happens when it is imprecise?

Each December my ballot arrives for the U.S. Harness Writers Association Dan Patch Awards. While voting in the horses’ categories are open to all competitors, the human nominees are narrowed down and selected by individual Chapters of the organization.

Let’s skip around a bit this week and touch on a few topics. As much as I hate to harp on an issue, what were trainers Mark Kesmodel and Richard Banca thinking when they made comments to Harnessracingupdate.com on the suspensions they were handed by the New York Racing and Wagering Board?