Teague surprised Wilson elims weren't needed

Having three starters himself in this year’s Woodrow Wilson at the Meadowlands, trainer George Teague said he was surprised only 10 names were dropped into the entry box, which meant no eliminations were necessary and all the 2-year-old pacers advanced directly into the $415,000 final Friday, Aug. 3.

This year’s Wilson drew 99 original entries last February, with the number dropping to 61 with the final May 15 payment. With just 10 entered into the race, this is the first year in the race’s 30-year history eliminations weren’t necessary. The past two Wilsons had 16 entries in each, necessitating two eight-horse elims.

“Yes, I thought there would be two or three divisions, to be honest with you,” Teague told harnessracing.com Friday morning. “There are quite a few colts out there. But I guess I’m 50-50 on it because less starts are better because I want to hang around for the latter part of the year.”

Teague, who won the 2005 Wilson with Western Ace, said he bypassed races over the past few weeks with his charges to keep them on schedule for the Wilson, which had eliminations scheduled for Friday night. Without the elims, Teague’s trio of Duneside Perch, Moon Beam and Perseus will all be coming into the final with a three-week break between starts.

“I thought there would be eliminations and the final, and that’s why I sat out the Niatross (with Duneside Perch and Perseus) because I didn’t want to race them so many weeks in a row. And Moon Beam had a race in Pennsylvania and I skipped that one,” said Teague. “It kind of threw a kink in my style a little bit because I wanted to race them a little bit more than that. But I can get by with it here because I have a nice place to train one and tighten one up.”

Likely Wilson favorite Duneside Perch, undefeated in three starts, currently holds speed-badge honors among his class with a 1:50.2 victory in the New Jersey Sire Stakes (NJSS) final July 12 at the Meadowlands. Moon Beam is also undefeated in three starts, including a national season’s five-eighths mile mark of 1:52.4 set at Pocono Downs in a Reynolds division on July 13. Perseus has a slate of 3-0-1-2, and is coming off a third-place finish in the NJSS final behind his stablemate. The three starts mentioned are the last times the three went behind the starting gate.   

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