Lawrence wins Woodruff

Lawrence took advantage of swift early fractions for a 1:53.1 win in the $57,175 Hiram Woodruff final for older trotters Monday afternoon at the Meadowlands.

Driven by John Campbell, Lawrence brushed to the top past the opening quarter and yielded to heavy favorite Corleone Kosmos in a hot :54.1 half. As the pacesetter suffered a piece of broken equipment and grew leg weary in the stretch, Lawrence powered past for a one-length victory.

“We were going as fast as we could the whole mile,” Campbell said. “They all got tired in the last quarter. Following Coreleone Kosmos on the last turn, we couldn’t keep up to him at that point but he got a little rough-gaited. My horse does keep trying and he just kept digging there. They were all tired down by the wire, but he did hang on. I didn’t know if Corleone Kosmos would keep going or not. I knew my horse would keep going as much as he could, because he does try very hard, but at the head of the stretch, I wasn’t sure if I could catch him.”

Trained by Brendan Johnson and owned by Maria Lofgran of New Egypt, New Jersey, Lawrence recorded his fourth win in 15 starts this season and surpassed $125,000 in career earnings.

The Memorial Day undercard featured three $25,000 divisions of the New Jersey Sire Stakes for 3-year-old colt trotters. The winners were: Rock The Universe [race 1, 1:56], Keystone Savage [race 3, 1:56] and Ira K [race 5, 1:56.1].

(Meadowlands release)

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