Meadowlands: Monserrate breaks through, Pick 6 carries over

Monserrate, victorious in the 2024 Valley Victory, snagged his first win of 2025 Friday night at the Meadowlands, as the Hambletonian eligible 3-year-old son of Chapter Seven-Guinevere was the easiest kind of winner in the featured $17,500 high-end conditioned trot.

"I wasn't happy with either one of his Vernon starts [when he finished third and second, respectively, in his first two outings of the year]," said winning trainer Andrew Harris. "But he was facing [Yonkers Trot winner] Super Chapter and horses like that. I took the hobbles off [at the start of this year] because he needed to mature. He's never shown any signs that he needed them."

With Hall of Fame driver Dave Miller calling the shots, Monserrate reached the top from post two in the seven-horse field in 28 3/5. Soft fractions of 58 2/5 and 1:27 3/5 followed, leaving a 26 3/5 final quarter sprint to complete a wire-to-wire win in 1:54 1/5. It was 4 3/4 lengths back to second-place finisher Excalibur Bi. Prominence was third.

"Dave [Miller] kept the ear plugs in," said Harris. "When he went to Vernon, he wouldn't eat or drink, and his lines still looked OK. But he didn't possess that pop. Tonight, that's as good as he's ever been."

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Monserrate, who is owned by Bill Pollock, Bruce Areman and Harris, won for the fifth time in 16 lifetime starts while lifting his lifetime earnings to $366,556. The 1-2 favorite returned $3 to win.

PICK 6 CARRYOVER: There were no winning tickets sold on the 20-cent Pick 6, creating a carryover of $6,742 for Saturday's card. With a 33-1 shot starting the sequence, no player could cash despite the final five legs seeing winner's odds of 4-1, 9-2, 4-1, 2-1 and 9-5. Those with five correct collected $204.32.

The Pick 6 is available nightly on races eight through 13.

A LITTLE MORE: Artist Best came from off-the-pace to take the seventh race Meadowlands Amateur Driving Club dash at odds of 29-1 to give provisional driver Charles Longo his first Meadowlands victory. Andy McCarthy led the driving colony with three winners on the card. All-source handle on the 14-race program totaled $2,865,366. Racing resumes Saturday at 6:20 p.m. with a star-studded program that includes the Dave Brower Memorial, Crawford Farms, Perfect Sting and Six Pack.

--press release (Meadowlands)--