Freehold: Favorites take Saturday's stakes events

Two stakes events - the $55,000 Garden State Trot for 3-year-old colts and geldings and the $56,000 New Jersey Sire Stakes-Standardbred Development Fund final for sophomore pacing males - headlined Saturday afternoon's card at Freehold Raceway.

In the Garden State Trot, Calle Palema (Steve Smith) blasted to the lead from post four and hit the opening quarter in 28 seconds. Magical Muscle Man (Mattias Melander) also showed early speed from post six and moved up to challenge Calle Palema, but Smith elected to leave him parked out. Magical Muscle Man then backed off while remaining on the rim on the way to the 57 3/5 half, but advanced again to reengage Calle Palema as they went to the 1:27 3/5 three-quarters.

Calle Palema would go off-stride and into the safety lane midway through the far turn, which allowed Magical Muscle Man to finally get to the rail, and with the top spot to boot. After Magical Muscle Man landed on the engine, he would be confronted by Identity Police (Jason Bartlett), who was left first-up, while horses in the back-field managed to get around Calle Palema and looked to get involved.

Through the stretch Magical Muscle Man dug in determinedly and clung to a narrow advantage, but Soot Hanover (George Brennan), who'd sat on the cones near the back of the pack, avoided the breaking Calle Palema, and then angled out between foes to find room, had enough of a kick and racetrack left to get up and take the victory by three-parts of a length in 1:58 flat. Magical Muscle Man held off Identity Police to finish in the runner-up spot.

Soot Hanover, a Muscle Hill colt, is trained by Scott Di Domenico for owner Nick Clegg. Unraced as a 2-year-old, Soot Hanover has a record of 5-2-1 from 19 starts this year, and he has now banked $63,996. The 2-1 favorite, he paid $6.20 to win.

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The New Jersey Sire Stakes-Standardbred Development Fund final didn't have nearly that much drama, as 2-5 choice Imaginary Line (Joe Bongiorno) took over control beyond the 27 4/5 opening quarter, then stayed in front through middle-half panels of 56 2/5 and 1:25 1/5. From there, Imaginary Line sprinted home in 27 3/5 to open up and win the event by 3 3/4 lengths in 1:52 4/5. King James Express (Jason Bartlett), who led early on, was the runner-up, and Captain Fancy (Dan Dube) was third after a first-over grind.

Jenn Bongiorno trains Imaginary Line, a gelded son of Betting Line, for owners Robert Weinstein and Joshua Graber. Imaginary Line went winless in seven trips behind the gate a year ago, but has five victories from 16 efforts in 2021. He has now pocketed $69,848 lifetime and paid $2.80 to win.