AHUNDREDDOLLARBILL REPEATS AT BIG M

Sunday, December 11, 2022

The task was tougher this time around, but the result was the same for Ahundreddollarbill.

Last week, the 4-year-old gelded son of Chapter Seven-Swinging Royalty beat a weaker group in the weekly featured trot, a non-winners of $20,000. Saturday night at The Meadowlands, the Tony Alagna trainee took down 2-5 favorite Incommunicado to run his win streak to two after taking the $31,500 Open Handicap for trotters.

“He’s a good old boy,” said winning driver Yannick Gingras. “He knows how to do his job.”

After winning a week ago as the 1-5 public choice on the front end, on Saturday Ahundreddollarbill was away in no particular hurry, sitting fourth as Weslynn Quest took them to the opening quarter in :26.4 before that one yielded to Incommunicado, who forged to the lead at the three-eighths before hitting the half in :54.4.

“In the post parade, he was pretty keyed up,” said Gingras of Ahundreddollarbill. “I think we would have gone a big fraction had I let him go to the top, so I put him off a helmet and he relaxed. They were going pretty hard out of there [at the start] and the fractions played in my favor. I was pretty confident at the half with those fractions.”

Gingras edged the eventual winner off the rail as they approached the far turn and still had plenty to do after Incommunicado was clocked at three-quarters in 1:23, but proved up to the challenge, working his way past the tiring favorite through the stretch to score by a length in 1:51.3. Weslynn Quest was crisp late to get past Incommunicado in the race for place.

Ahundreddollarbill returned $5.40 to his backers while upping his numbers to 14 wins from 45 career starts, good for earnings of $811,314.

TITO ROCKS IN PACING FEATURE: Tito Rocks put his high turn of early speed to good use in the $23,000 pacing feature, taking the high-end conditioned pace in 1:50.3.

“He snaps off the gate pretty quick,” said winning driver Andy McCarthy. “So, you can get him in prime position. Around the far turn, you could feel his engine revving.”

McCarthy kept the Robert Cleary trainee in the pocket behind leader I’ll Drink To That and sped past that foe on the way to a 7-1 surprise. The 5-year-old gelded son of Sweet Lou-Ticket To Rock returned $16.20 in winning for the 20^th time from 71 career starts. His bank account now stands at a little more than $334,000.

A LITTLE MORE: After winning four times on Friday, Dexter Dunn drove four more Saturday to finish the weekend with eight victories. The 33-year-old Kiwi has visited the winner’s circle 15 times over the last four race cards. … Todd McCarthy had a driving triple. … A big carryover looms for 20-cent Pick-5 players. The bet failed to yield a winning ticket Saturday, creating a $47,199 carryover for Friday’s card. Those with four correct collected $138.72. … All-source handle totaled $3,035,289, the fourth Saturday out of the last five when betting busted the $3-million barrier. On Nov. 19, wagering was $2.999 million … Racing resumes Friday at 6:20 p.m.

PHOTO: Ahundreddollarbill and driver Yannick Gingras take the Saturday night trotting feature at The Meadowlands. (Credit: Lisa Photo)