Meadowlands: Karl cruises again in New Jersey Sire Stakes

Karl continued his march toward Hambletonian Day with another win, taking the second of three $30,000 legs of the New Jersey Sire Stakes for 3-year-old colt and gelding trotters on Saturday night at the Meadowlands in 1:52 2/5.

The son of Tactical Landing-Avalicious once again raced from off-the-pace for driver Yannick Gingras and trainer Nancy Takter, and once again had little trouble winning for the second time in as many 2024 starts. His final quarter of 26 2/5 completed a four length win over Tony Adams S. He paid $2.10 as the 1-9 public choice.

Tony Alagna's barn dominated the NJSS action outside of Karl's race, winning two of the filly flights with Local Honey [1:53] and Glamorous Hanover [1:52 3/5] and colt divisions with Bright Star [1:52 1/5] and Waterfall (in a dead-heat with Ake Svanstedt trained/driven Pantoran) in 1:52. Todd McCarthy drove Local Honey (by Walner), Glamorous Hanover (by Tactical Landing) and Waterfall (by Walner) and Scott Zeron drove Bright Star (by Muscle Hill).

Rounding out the NJSS victors was Spy Coast, a Walner filly who improved to two-for-two in the series with a 1:53 tally for Gingras and trainer Ron Burke.

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1:48 IS GREAT: Only minutes after Legendary Hanover established an industry-fastest 2024-mile time of 1:48 3/5 at Woodbine Mohawk Park, Irish-bred Oakwood Ardan ($2.40 to win as the 1-5 favorite), a 5-year-old gelded son of Sweet Lou-Trend Setter, won the TrackMaster Series final (for horses with a rating of 89.5 or less) in 1:48 to set a new North American season's-best for trainer Robert Cleary. This was Oakwood Ardan's seventh win in eight starts since his arrival from Great Britain last fall.

Just six races later, Maximus Miki equaled the 1:48 clocking after racing parked for the final half-mile in an iron-tough $46,500 Open for pacers. 'Miki,' a 5-year-old gelded son of Always B Miki-Beach Gal who is trained by Tom Cancelliere, returned $11.80 as the 9-2 fourth choice.

Both 1:48 performers were driven by Andy McCarthy.

CLOSE FINISH: Ian McIntosh took down the first prize of $2,500 in The Big M's free handicapping contest that offered $10,000 in total prizes.

McIntosh finished with a bankroll of $147.80, just nosing out second-place finisher Kaia Savage, who totaled $145.40 to walk away with $2,000.

A LITTLE MORE: After totaling seven winners combined last Saturday, the McCarthy brothers were at it, rolling another seven on the program. On Saturday, it was Todd taking four and Andy three. One week ago, it was the other way around. All-source handle on the 14-race program totaled $3,584,315, the 33rd time from 39 cards this year when wagering went past the $3 million mark. Racing resumes Friday at 6:20 p.m.

--edited press release (Meadowlands)--