Looking Hanover a Horse & Groom winner

Looking Hanover looked Celebrity Playboy in the eye at the top of the stretch and edged away to win the first of three $20,000 Horse & Groom Series divisions in 1:54.4 Sunday afternoon at Meadowlands Racetrack.
 
Driven and co-owned by Yannick Gingras, Looking Hanover came first up to pressure Celebrity Playboy at the half and the two horses matched strides through middle fractions of :56.4 and 1:26.2.  They moved in tandem until Looking Hanover [$4.00] pulled away in the final sixteenth of the mile to win the event for conditioned trotters by 1-1/4 lengths.  Shoeless White Sox rallied off a second-over trip to nip the pocket sitter P J Clark for third.
 
Looking Hanover posted his first win in five starts this season after being the runner-up in three of those efforts.  He has now hit the board in 24 of 55 starts lifetime for earnings of $227,441.  Ed Gannon Jr. trains the 5-year-old son of Muscles Yankee-Lady Bar for Gingras and Dawn Marie Gannon of Dover, DE.
 
George Brennan reined in the winners of the other two Horse & Groom Series divisions on the card.  Brennan and Jaavos Boy [$5.20] held off Hurrikanebiggeorge at the wire to win the second division in 1:55.4 for trainer Buzzy Sholty.  He later guided Impel Hanover [$8.00] wire-to-wire in 1:54.4 for trainer-owner James Atkinson.
 
Vegas Trip Up For Grabs at HWS Qualifier
 
Cash prizes and an entry into the 2011 Horseplayer World Series are up for grabs at Meadowlands Racetrack's first thoroughbred handicapping tournament of the year.
 
Register now for the Horseplayer World Series Qualifier on Saturday, March 27.  The top finisher receives an entry and travel accommodations to the 2011 HWS at Orleans Casino in Las Vegas. (Meadowlands)