Hollywood Casino at the Meadows is starting to wind down for the year, but there’s still plenty of great racing to be had in these last two months of 2024. Racing fans should pay careful attention to the racing schedule around the holidays. Next week, racing will only be held on Wednesday, November 27 as a result of the Thanksgiving Holiday. December will start with three straight weeks of the usual Wednesday to Friday racing schedule before hosting Monday racing on December 23 and 30, as well as a card on Friday, December 27 to finish out the year. Post time for all remaining cards in 2024 will be at 12:45 pm. Check out www.meadowsharnessracing.com for the complete racing schedule, promotions, free programs, and more.
Earlier this month, Dave Palone added yet another milestone to his illustrious career: 21,000 driving victories. Just over two years after he earned his 20,000th victory, Palone has racked up another thousand to extend his all time wins record. Palone continues to lead the way in the driver standings with 347 wins on the year, but Ronnie Wrenn Jr. continues to remain in the hunt with 309 trips to victory lane. While there’s still a little bit of work to do to finish out the title this year, Palone is quickly closing in on a potential 35th consecutive driving title at the Meadows. Likewise, there continues to be no surprises on the training side of things as longtime leading trainer Ron Burke has all but wrapped up the title with 172 winners. Brandon Presto is a distant second with 109 victories.
This week’s racing at the Meadows wraps up with a 13-race card on Friday, November 22. There’s a pair of Ron Burke-trained horses that I like on the card: WELLINGTON HANOVER and GUNG HO. In the second race, WELLINGTON HANOVER draws well with Post 4 and comes off of a solid race last week off the two-month layoff. After getting away nearly last, he was able to rally well late in the mile to finish second in the end, albeit beaten 14 lengths to a much the best odds-on winner. There has been all sort of breaking issues for him in the past, including in several qualifiers ahead of last week’s start, but hopefully last week was a sign of things to come and the price should be right to take a chance here.
GUNG HO will race in Friday’s 8th race from Post 7 in a conditioned field. GUNG HO has plenty of gate speed and some strong back class, despite not quite panning out at the Stakes level as initially hoped a few seasons ago. He should be able to find a forward spot early despite the outside post and be right there at the finish. He could in theory be a pretty short price in the right field at this level, but the outside post and the likes of MANTADOR, stablemate SAULSBROOK GENESIS, and SEVEN HUNDRED in this field should all lead to GUNG HO being an acceptable price in this spot at post time. Best of luck with your plays at the Meadows!
