Meadowlands: Rebuff ties track record, Slay upsets in Stanley Dancer Memorial splits

Rebuff tied the Meadowlands track record for a 3-year-old colt trotter with a 1:49 4/5 performance, and then 12-1 shot Slay rallied up the inside to an upset victory in the pair of $125,000 Stanley Dancer Memorial tests on Saturday night.

In the first division Rebuff (Tim Tetrick) got away in third and watched as Pretender (Andrew McCarthy) led to the 27 1/5 opening quarter and then gave way to Temporal Hanover (Brian Sears) past that marker. Tetrick would then move Rebuff to the outside, and he became the third leader at the 54 3/5 half. From there, Rebuff trotted through three-quarters in 1:23, giving the cold shoulder to a first-up Periculum (Mattias Melander), and went on to defeat Temporal Hanover by three-quarters of a length. Pretender wound up third.

"Anytime you go 49 with a trotter it's special, but he did it really easy, too," remarked Tetrick. "Last week was pretty special what he did, and I wanted to try him on the front before I got too far along towards the Hambletonian. I think he answered questions."

Trainer Lucas Wallin also co-owns Rebuff, a Muscle Hill-Meucci Madness colt bred by Steve Stewart and Michael Andrew, with partners Kjell Andersen and Pieter Delis. Rebuff has compiled a record of 6-2-1 from 13 lifetime tries, pushed his bankroll to $524,920, and paid $3.00 to win as the 1-2 choice.

"We talked about it before the race if we should try to get to the lead, so we have been there before the big day, said Wallin. "He did everything good."

Wallin was particularly happy about Rebuff's performance since he threw a shoe somewhere during the mile, yet was able to prevail.

"We've been very, very confident with him. He actually lost a front shoe here today in the race. I don't know where, but that's even more impressive. We're not surprised," Wallin finished.

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Slay (Dexter Dunn) bounced back after making a break behind the gate in the Zweig Memorial at Vernon last time out to capture the other section in 1:51.

Starting from post three, Slay took back to sixth as B A Superhero (Tim Tetrick), Branded By Lindy (Yannick Gingras), and King Of The North (Mark MacDonald) traded the lead through opening-half stations of 27 and 54 3/5. King Of The North remained the boss at the 1:23 4/5 three-quarters, but Branded By Lindy was already out and on the move from the two-hole at that marker.

King Of The North and Branded By Lindy traded blows through the stretch drive, but Dunn had Slay finishing full of trot along the pylons, and Slay blew by them in the closing strides on his way to win by about a length and a quarter. King Of The North held off Branded By Lindy for second.

"He felt good. I'd never actually driven him, so I didn't know too much about him. He felt like he had plenty of trot. It just opened up, and he really sprinted hard," said Dunn.

A Chapter Seven-Swinging Royalty colt, Slay was bred by Jonas Schlabach and is owned by Crawford Farms Racing and James Crawford IV. Slay is now a four-time winner from 14 career starts, and he has now put away $277,401. He returned $27.80 to win.

"He's a very good colt. His biggest thing is he needs to be tactical. He needs a target," offered victorious trainer Tony Alagna. "He's not really big enough to do all the work, but if they tow him into the race like this, he's going to beat some horses. That's his thing.

"We expected him to be good tonight. Dexter worked out a superb drive. He got up the inside, and like I said, he's dangerous if you throw that in his lap."