Shark Gesture put on a fierce performance to win the co-featured $210,000 Graduate Final for free-for-all pacers Saturday night at the Meadowlands, digging in to hold off the late rally of Montecito N by a half-length in 1:49.
Caught wide around the first turn, driver Tim Tetrick and Shark Gesture seized command from Won The West in a swift :54.1 half, leaving Winbak Speed uncovered behind them. Winbak Speed cleared Shark Gesture entering the far turn and led the charge to the three-quarter marker in 1:21.1. At the head of the stretch, Tetrick angled Shark Gesture out to take on the leader and the two battled stride-for-stride until Winbak Speed finally gave way in deep stretch. Shark Gesture gamely dug in to hold off the late rally of Montecito N. He paid $6.20 to win the seventh race of the evening. “My horse kind of struggles in the turns, especially when he’s two-wide,” Tetrick said. “I had the opportunity to keep Pierce [Ron Pierce and Winbak Speed] locked in and I just wanted to be able to beat him to the front, so it worked out good for me. Pierce’s horse will kind of wait and take you out of the race and I didn’t want him to stop my momentum so I took it right back at him when I got a chance to get out of the turn. He was running Pierce over at the top of the lane, so I went ahead and took it right to him.” Shark Gesture, owned by Norman and Gerald Smiley and TLP Stable, was second in the 2007 Graduate Final. After embarking on a brief stud career in 2008, he was brought back to the racetrack this season by trainer Larry Remmen and has been first or second in nine of 16 starts. Lifetime, the 6-year-old son of Cam’s Card Shark has won 17 of 53 career starts. He surpassed $1.1 million in earnings with the win and lowered his lifetime mark to 1:49, eclipsing his previous standard of 1:49.1, taken at The Red Mile during his 3-year-old season and equaled earlier this year. (Meadowlands)
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