Sent off as the 3-5 choice in the $125,000 Great White Way division, Meeker Avenue was hemmed in along the rail in second as Stoneless set opening fractions of 21.95 and 45.33 seconds. Prompted by jockey Ramon Dominguez turning for home, the gelded son of Read the Footnotes darted through a narrow opening inside Laila’s Jazz and prevailed after a hard-fought battle through the final furlong.
“He’s still maturing and learning,” said Dominick Schettino, who trains Meeker Avenue for MeB Racing Stables and Brooklyn Boyz Stables. “He’ll get better with more racing. He was in tight the whole way. It’s a learning process, but he ran a hell of a race.”
Meeker Avenue, who earned $75,000, returned $3.20 for a $2 win bet.
In the $125,000 Fifth Avenue division for juvenile fillies, Kelli Got Frosty drew alongside favored P J’s Superego inside the final sixteenth and prevailed by a half-length to register her second win in four starts.
A bay daughter of Frost Giant – whose 2008 Suburban Handicap victory gave winning trainer Rudy Rodriguez his lone Grade 1 score as a jockey – Kelli Got Frosty completed the six furlongs in 1:09.91.
“I tried to take my time before I made my move,” said winning jockey Joel Rosario. “She’s a pretty horse and she does everything right.”
The beaten favorite in the Joseph A. Gimma last time out, Kelli Got Frosty returned $10.60 for a $2 win bet and earned $75,000 for owners Andrew Cohen, Lee Sacks, Aubrey Flanagan and Gary Tolchin.
With longshots Black Onyx ($30.40) taking race 5 and Lady’s Lunar Luck ($19.60) victorious in race 8, there will be a two-day Pick 6 carryover of $89,489 going into Wednesday’s card, which features the $100,000 NYSS Thunder Rumble division as leg 2 of the Pick 6.