Sweet Lou is the odds on prohibitive favorite to win the Meadowlands Pace and rightfully so, he sports an impressive resume coming into the event having only missed the exacta once in 17 career starts. Check out the field (Meadowlands Pace PP’s)
The local buzz at Sweet Lou’s home base at the Meadows is he could be the fastest standradbred of all-time. So he’s a lock isn’t he?
Not so fast…….The only race he missed the exacta was a 4th place finish in the North American Cup which is a grand circuit event similar to how the pace should be run.
One of my listner’s actually stole my thunder of why I think Sweet Lou could be a play against, Dave Palone.
Let me preface something, I love Dave Palone. I told him 3 years again when he drove a winner for me that he would become the all-time dash winning driver in North America (accomplished 7/5/2012). I also feel and believe in my heart he is the best overnight driver of all time. What he has done daily, weekly, monthly, annually at the Meadows is amazing, he dominates a well respected colony of drivers. Keep in mind the likes of Sears, Miller, & Brennan all spent time chasing him only to pack up and move East. One could easily argue that had any made a home here they would have played second fiddle.
However, in the last 3 years, he has only 2 wins in 42 starts at the Meadowlands (1 came last week in the elimination with Sweet Lou). During that period his UDR is a paultry .160 considering his lifetime UDR is just under .400
Numbers don’t lie, it’s why we keep score. While my heart will be locally rooting for Lou my wallted might just be clamouring elsewhere.
In addition to the Pace, the undercard is enormous with 6 of the 10 of this week’s harness poll competing (see below), should be a great card for the BacK To The Track event slated nationwide. Check back later this week for full card analysis and experts view on the Pace.
Hambletonian/Breeders Crown Standardbred Poll: Week 8 – 7/10/2012
| Rank | Name (First Place Votes) | Age/Gait/Sex | Record | Earnings | Points | Pvs |
| 1 | American Jewel (24) | 3pf | 5-4-1-0 | $475,077 | 327 | 1 |
| 2 | Check Me Out (2) | 3tf | 5-4-1-0 | $449,305 | 254 | 3 |
| 3 | Sweet Lou (2) | 3pc | 5-4-0-0 | $266,728 | 236 | 4 |
| 4 | Googoo Gaagaa (1) | 3tc | 7-5-0-0 | $343,080 | 227 | 2 |
| 5 | Chapter Seven (2) | 4th | 2-2-0-0 | $120,850 | 204 | 5 |
| 6 | Thinking Out Loud (2) | 3pc | 7-4-2-1 | $810,190 | 155 | 6 |
| 7 | Betterthancheddar (1) | 4ph | 6-5-1-0 | $355,100 | 150 | 7 |
| 8 | Heston Blue Chip | 3pc | 5-5-0-0 | $172,393 | 77 | — |
| 9 | Foiled Again | 8pg | 12-4-4-3 | $430,750 | 63 | 8 |
| 10 | Arch Madness | 8tg | 9-3-3-3 | $365,108 | 56 | 9 |