Mission Brief & Pinkman Favored in Hambletonian Eliminations
Fifteen colts, three geldings including last season’s champion and one very talented filly were entered Monday afternoon for the $1 million Hambletonian at Meadowlands Racing & Entertainment.
The world’s most famous trotting race headlines a stakes-laden card on Saturday afternoon, closing day of the standardbred meet. There will be 10 stakes finals, and host of family activities including pony rides, face painters and live music. Paid admissions can take home a baseball cap for adults or a Foiled Again Breyer Stablemate for kids, while supplies last.
First post is noon for the exceptional afternoon of championship racing.
The Hambletonian field will be split into a pair of $100,000 elimination heats, races 8 and 9 on the card.
The first five finishers in each elimination return for the final - race 13 - that anchors the 90-minute live coverage on CBS SportsNet that begins at 4 p.m.
The standout field attracted Pinkman and Mission Brief, the 2014 Dan Patch winners as divisional champions.
Pinkman, a gelding trained by three-time Hambletonian winner Jimmy Takter, got the worst of it in the draw for the first eliminations. He landed post 10 as the 8/5 favorite.
Stablemate Canepa Hanover fared only slightly better, getting post 9 as the 3-1 second choice in the draw hosted by sportscaster Bruce Beck and New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman.
