Meadowlands: Bookie J blitzes foes in Home Grown

Bookie J put up a flawless performance on Saturday night at the Meadowlands, tracking down leader Thisbeestings Deo through a powerhouse stretch drive to take the second of two $30,000 divisions of the New Jersey Home Grown for 3-year-old colts and geldings on the pace by 4 1/4 widening lengths.

Trainer Chris Ryder has high hopes - maybe Meadowlands Pace hopes - for the gelded son of Perfect Sting-Skyy, who won the 2025 Kindergarten final. "Well, I wouldn't tell you that at the moment, but he's got plenty more. He's got more gears to him. You know, he's strong and he’s a tall horse. He's gotten stronger from 2 to 3 and I think he's pretty serious."

The Dexter Dunn-driven Bookie J stayed perfect in two starts this year after stopping the clock in 1:52 over a sloppy track with a -2 variant to up his lifetime stats to six wins from 13 tries, good for earnings of $230,868. He paid $2.40 to win as the 1-5 favorite.

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HOME GROWN WINNERS: There were three other $30,000 divisions of the New Jersey Home Grown for pacers contested on the card. Those winners were:

-Race 3 (3-year-old colts and geldings) - Azrael Blue Chip (Perfect Sting-Bathsheba colt), driven by Andy McCarthy, trained by Besim Odza, winning time 1:53, returning $3.20 to win as the 3-5 favorite

-Race 5 (3-year-old fillies) - Sunny Station (Perfect Sting-Sandy's Beach), Todd McCarthy, Brett Pelling, 1:53 3/5, $3.60 as the 4-5 favorite

-Race 11 (3-year-old fillies) – Darlin's Angel (Captaintreacherous-Darlin's Delight), Lauren Tritton, Juan Cano, 1:54, $5 as the 3-2 second choice

--press release (Meadowlands)--