Meadowlands: Periculum vaults off cover to Crawford Farms Open Trot title

Periculum has only made two starts so far in 2025, but he's made them count, as this year's Arthur J. Cutler Memorial winner added a career-best 1:50 victory in the Grade 3 $164,000 Crawford Farms Open Trot on Saturday night at the Meadowlands.

Osceola (Doug McNair) shot through from post one to hit the quarter in 27 seconds while Lexus Kody (Yannick Gingras) settled into the pocket after leaving from the nine-hole. In the backstretch, even-money favorite Aetos Kronos (Dexter Dunn) rolled to the outside from the third spot, but Osceola made him work past the 54 3/5 half to clear.

On the final bend Lexus Kody made another move by coming first-over, and that gave Periculum (Scott Zeron), who had watched everything from fifth, the cover he was looking to follow prior to the 1:22 3/5 three-quarters. In the lane Zeron gave Periculum the call, and he responded with an explosive 26 4/5 final quarter that sent him by stablemate Aetos Kronos and on to the win by a widening 3 1/4 lengths. Lexus Kody was third, followed by Up Your Deo (Ake Svanstedt) and Hillexotic (Matt Kakaley).

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"He's had enough track work. He might not have been race speed, but he qualified back extremely well. We've honestly stayed away from really hard work. They prepped him really well coming into tonight and he delivered," Zeron remarked about Periculum's season so far. "He thanks me for it turning for home if I look after him early in the race. He loves to chase them down."

A 6-year-old Muscle Hill stallion trained by Marcus Melander, Periculum was bred by Order By Stable and is owned by Brixton Medical Inc. and Holly Lane Stud East Ltd. This was his 13th career victory, he has now earned $1,436,764 and he paid $6.40 to win as the 2-1 second choice.

"We obviously didn't have any stakes races, and he was supposed to race about three weeks ago but he got a little fever there. After that we qualified him twice, and he looked really sharp in the qualifier last week, so I thought he should be ready tonight," said Melander, who added that Periculum's next start should come in the Spirit Of Massachusetts next month at Plainridge.