Hollywood Casino at the Meadows hosted the annual Fair Finals this past Friday evening, officially marking the end of the 2024 Stakes Season. The Fair Finals turned out to be a fantastic evening for brothers Todd and Tony Schadel as Tony picked up a pair of wins as a trainer-driver and Todd picked up a training triple and drove one of the winners himself for good measure. The performance of the evening went to ANTE UP HANOVER, a Todd Schadel trainee that Andy Miller drove. ANTE UP HANOVER delivered as the 1-9 favorite in the Fair Final for 3-year-old colt and gelding pacers, easily by grabbing the early lead and never looking back in a sharp 1:52.2 mile. The other seven champions on the evening were MILAGRO, H MONI WINNER, SHOWBOAT HANOVER, LIONHEART HANOVER, LOVEYOUBUNCHES, CYCLONE BEN, and SWEET PARLAY.
With just about two and a half months left in 2024, the leading driver and trainer races at the Meadows have found two familiar names at the top: Dave Palone and Ron Burke. Burke finds himself with an impressive 151 winners sent out from the start of 2024 through the end of last week’s races. Brandon Presto is a distant second with 94 winners and Dirk Simpson rounds out the top three with 73 winners. The driver race remains a bit more competitive as Palone leads the way with his 307 trips to the winner’s circle. Ronnie Wrenn Jr. remains in shouting distance, however, with 278 winners, 29 behind Palone at this stage. Aaron Merriman is a bit further back in third with 210 wins. Palone has been the leading driver at the Meadows for well over 30 years in a row and has also won 368 races or more for the last 30+ years too. He’s obviously well on his way at this stage to keep both of these incredible streaks in tact through 2024.
The racing schedule at the Meadows will mostly be on a 3-day-per-week basis to finish out 2024. Racing will be held on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 12:45 pm from now through December 20 with two exceptions: the track will be dark on Thursday, November 28 (Thanksgiving) and Friday, November 29. The schedule is a little different for the last few weeks of the year around the holidays: racing will be held on Monday, December 23, Friday, December 27, and Monday, December 30 only to round out the calendar year. Post time for these three cards will all be 12:45 pm.
This week’s racing at the Meadows features an intriguing Open Pace that will go as the 6th race on the Friday, October 18 card. The top four finishers from last week’s Open Pace will return, but this time WILD WILD WESTERN, the winner last time around, will start from Post 7 in the 7-horse field. As a result, it’s likely WILD WILD WESTERN’s main foes will take some more money in this field, but WILD WILD WESTERN seems to have found his top form again and will be tough to knock off. Hopefully, the post draw here helps our price as I’ll make WILD WILD WESTERN my best play of the week. Best of luck in all of your plays this week and beyond at the Meadows!
