Meadowlands: Lambert awaits Gentleman's Club's return, discusses Saturday starters

Trainer Aaron Lambert saw his 2-year-old pacer Gentleman's Club close out a solid season, capturing the Governor's Cup at the Meadowlands in somewhat of an upset.

The Downbytheseaside-sired colt had spent much of his campaign racing on the Ohio Sire Stakes circuit, but Lambert believed he had enough talent to compete on a Grand Circuit level. Gentleman's Club's Grade 1 victory may have impacted Lambert's plans just a bit as he looks forward to the 2026 sophomore season.

"We're staking him to the big ones," said Lambert. By definition that means that the $120,000 yearling buy in the autumn of 2024 will have sights set on the North America Cup in June at Woodbine Mohawk Park and the Meadowlands Pace in July.

"I think we really got to see him at his best over the mile track," Lambert said. "He got over the smaller-sized tracks in Ohio fine but was much better when he stretched out at the Meadowlands."

Following the victory last November, Lambert gave Gentleman's Club a well-earned rest.

"Andy and Julie Miller had him over the winter and I just got him back," said Lambert. "He looks great. They did a fantastic job with him."

A nice-sized colt as a freshman, Gentleman's Club looks bigger and stronger according to Lambert, and that could make him more of a regular player in this year's major races. What impressed Lambert about the colt last year was his durability, considering a year filled with plenty of travel.

"Each time we raced him in Ohio I brought him back to New Jersey," said Lambert of the hands-on experience, not letting Gentleman's Club out of his care, but also putting a ton of shipping miles on his horse. Unlike last year's 2-year-old champion Beau Jangles, who stayed out home primarily during his season, Gentleman's Club logged plenty of road miles but was at his best at the end of the year. "That's what was remarkable about him. He traveled so well and never wore himself out," Lambert said.

The 2026 plan could see him back in Ohio for certain with Lambert open to a flexible schedule. "It's going to come down to what horses get a little better from last year and which horses don't," said Lambert, obviously hopeful that the 3-year-old version of Gentleman's Club will compete with the best male pacers in North America.

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With Gentleman's Club just beginning his training for a sophomore campaign, Lambert has a few others ready for action on Saturday night at the Meadowlands with three in the box on the 15-race program. Effingham is likely to be Lambert's biggest opportunity to secure a win. The 7-year-old recent addition to the stable made his debut on February 14 with Lambert and closed powerfully to finish third in a claiming handicap.

"I was really happy with his race," Lambert said. "They had been torturing him on the front-end, and we weren't going to race him that way again." Effingham had won two of his last four races before being claimed by Lambert, and in all four of those starts was on the lead the entire mile. Reserved off-the-pace, Effingham blasted home in 26 1/5, going from eighth to third in the stretch.

On Saturday Effingham was assigned post 10 in the seventh race, a $19,000 claiming handicap event with Effingham in for a $55,000 tag and the inside four horses in the field in at the $40,000 level.

"There aren't that many options," Lambert said when asked about landing post 10. "There's no $50,000-75,000 claiming handicap, so we'll have to race him until we can find a conditioned level that he fits at."

Former MGM Grand Prix champion Typhoon Banner N ships to the Meadowlands after racing on Monday (February 16) at Yonkers in a conditioned race for this claiming handicap. Put in for a $50,000 tag, Typhoon Banner N, now a 10-year-old, starts from
post nine.

Lambert has been entrusted with many nice horses coming from Australia and New Zealand because of his patience and care. Expensive Ego A, a 25-time winner during a brilliant career Down Under, made his North American debut on the February 14 card at the Meadowlands, his first start in nearly two years.

"When Luke (McCarthy) sent me the horse he told me to take as much time as necessary to get him ready.

Expensive Ego A had sustained an injury that takes time to repair, and Lambert showed patience. "I've had him for 12 months," Lambert said.

Expensive Ego A qualified in November one time and then returned two months later with a pair of qualifiers at the Meadowlands before his first start against high-level conditioned pacers. "I was very happy with his first trip. I'd never expected he would pace in 1:50 and change and I was concerned about that," Lambert said. "But he came out of the race really well. I think he's going to need a few more runs."

Expensive Ego A drew the pole position in Saturday's eighth race, a conditioned affair for non-winners of $12,500 in their last five starts for a $17,500 purse.

Lambert also sends out Water Sports Teen (post seven) in the ninth race, a $25,000-30,000 handicap but just got the veteran in his stable and couldn't report on what to expect with the horse returning from Dover Downs after five weeks on the sidelines.