River Shark wins Aquarius leg

A winter series standout last season, River Shark resumed his winning ways in the $40,000 second round of the Aquarius on Saturday night at Meadowlands Racetrack.

River Shark, with Dan Dube at the lines, cut a swift opening quarter of :26.1 and faced pressure from Keep It Real as they spiraled through middle fractions of 55.1 and 1:23.4.  River Shark dug in gamely in the stretch to hold off Keep It Real by a neck in a final 1:50.3 clocking.  Handsome Harry, who upset the field in the first round of the series, never left the pylons and finished third.  River Shark paid $5.40 to win the sixth race feature.

River Shark made an impressive sweep of the Robert J. Suslow Series and won an elimination race for the Berry's Creek during his 3-year-old campaign last year at the Meadowlands.   He also finished second in both preliminary legs and the final of the Matt's Scooter Series, as well as the Confederation Cup at Flamboro Downs.  River Shark ended his sophomore season with a slate of six wins, five seconds and four thirds and $326,078 in earnings.

The son of Four Starzzz Shark was originally a $9,000 yearling purchase by Aaron Waxman and trainers Dave Sabatelli and Carmine Fusco.  VIP Internet Stable and El Lobo [Irwin Kaplan and Arthur Libman] acquired interests in the pacer last May.  Sabatelli developed River Shark at two and three, while Fusco took over training duties at the start of this season.
 
The $84,000 (est.) Aquarius Final is next Saturday, February 20.