Meadowlands: Hambletonian Maturity taken by Chapercraz

Yannick Gingras managed to navigate through traffic in the homestretch and take advantage of a race that had an extra eighth of a mile, guiding Chapercraz to a 32-1 upset victory in Saturday's $425,000 E T Gerry Jr. Hambletonian Maturity for 4-year-old trotters at the Meadowlands. Trained by Ron Burke, Chapercraz defeated French Wine and Oh Well to win for the first time in 11 starts this year.

Chapercraz crossed over before the turn after out-sprinting the field with the added distance before yielding to Oh Well through the 26 second first quarter. Special Way and Tim Tetrick then hustled up to take control of the action but would yield the front past the 55 2/5 half to Bestfriend Volo and Scott Zeron. The pace was contentious through the third quarter as Ari Ferrari J and Jason Bartlett applied strong pressure, followed by Call Me Goo and French Wine second- and third- over.

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Coming into the stretch, Bestfriend Volo stopped abruptly, impacting Special Way in the pocket, while Ari Ferrari J took a tenuous lead. David Miller rallied Helpfirstedition wide and appeared to have the race won in mid-stretch, but others were interested as well. Oh Well with Todd McCarthy, an early leader, rallied between horses, but Gingras, after dealing with a shuffle, found room with Chapercraz and was able to knife between traffic and get his nose up on the wire as the field slowed dramatically late. Following a 1:50 3/5 mile, the final eighth was just 14 4/5. The blanket finish saw Chapercraz, a 4-year-old altered son of Crazy Wow, return $67.40 to win.

"I was lucky to get through," said Gingras with a smile in the winner's circle.

Owned by Burke Racing, Weaver Bruscemi and Phil Collura, Chapercraz finally broke the ice in 2024, winning after a third- place finish in the Graduate a week earlier.

"He's a good horse," said Burke, suggesting there are others in his stable with better credentials.