Pick for Saturday July 13, 2024 (Saturday Night Post Time: 10:44 p.m. ET)


HARNESS RACING AT THE MEADOWLANDS!


HARNESS? -- ARE YOU KIDDING ME [you might say] ?



Did I say that I'm a horse racing junkie?

Yes, that is right: I like harness horse racing, too.


OKAY, THE HAMBLETONIAN IS JUST THREE WEEKS AWAY -- AUGUST 3, TO BE EXACT -- BUT MEANWHILE LET'S KICK THE PRE-HAMBLETONIAN STAKES RACES OFF WITH A "BANG!"


The Meadowlands Pace
1 Mile | Open | 4 Year Olds and Up Pacers | PURSE: $650,000

Track: The Meadowlands

Surface: Dirt

Type: Pacers

Race: 11

Horse: Nijinsky (ML 2-1)

Bet Nijinsky (ML 2-1) to win and place using double down betting strategy and you should be going home as a winner.

Nijinsky's final odd will probably be right around 6/5 but my actual guess is 7/5 as a heavy favorite against a good group of pacers in a big field (10).

Saturday night (July 13) at The Meadowlands -- a stakes-laden Saturday night event full of stakes races highlighted by the $650,000 The Meadowlands Pace.

Check out the entries for yourself and enjoy the night full of harness stakes races at The Meadowlands.

One race of interest is race 6 (post time 8:23 p.m. ET) where the 3yo sensation Karl is tuning up for his Hambletonian race against 7 other 3yos in a stake race worth $135,000.

Karl is listed as 1/5 in the morning line for this race and he is drawn outside in post 8.

The next closest morning line odd is Dame Good Time (post 3) with 6-1 and the rest is 8-1 or longer.

I guess post position in this race doesn't matter as he is a very versatile horse who can come from the back of the field and win races going away.

In past races where he was drawn outside the driver opted to sit behind the field and make a move on the backstretch and by the turn for home Karl was usually full head of steam gobbling up grounds and making everybody else look like standing still racehorses.

So position 8 is not such a hinderance for Karl -- I'm not concerned about the outside post position at all.

Another race of note is race 3 (post 7:10 ET) where M-m's Dream (post 1) morning line odd of 3/5 and she'll ring around the Meadowlands oval with no one can get near her at a probable final odd of 1/5 or lower.


As for Nijinsky, he just won the North America Cup last month in fast time.

In that race in the stretch run of the North America Cup Nijinsky shrugged off a determined foe in Funtime Bayama who is again (in this race) drawn to his inside post 2 whereas Nijinsky is in post 3.

I think Funtime Bayama will set the pace while Nijinsky will sit behind him ready to pounce on him turning for home.


So it looks to be a two-horse race in my opinion between Nijinsky and Funtime Bayama but I could be wrong as the field is full of live pacers that could screw up the two-horse race scenario that I envisioned.

Having said that, I'm going to play this race as if it is a two-horse race by using a "two-horse" race betting angle.

To see why I concluded it as a two-horse race, let's observe their last race in the North America Cup in detail, in which, Nijinsky and Funtime Bayama scampered four lengths clear in the stretch – nearly a full second ahead of the field.

A full a second might not seem a lot but in harness it translates to about 5 to 6 lengths of travel time.

Either Nijinsky or Funtime Bayama could have won the race last time but Nijinsky showed grit and determination and repelled Funtime Bayama by less than a length to win in 1:47.3 – a lifetime best mile.

So in my opinion, this race is a two-horse race and I will play it as such.


ENJOY A SATURDAY NIGHT FULL OF HARNESS STAKES RACES, EVERYONE!