Two Four Leaf Clover splits

A pair of veteran campaigners turned in sharp performances with Pacific Renegade (1:50.1) and Shu Hanover (1:50.3), taking their respective $25,000 divisions of the Four Leaf Clover Series on Saturday night at the Meadowlands.



The two will be among the 10 advancing to $137,120 Four Leaf Clover Final on March 25.



In the first division, Pacific Renegade [$10.00, $3.00, $3.00], driven by Yannick Gingras, peeled off the pylons in midstretch and had just enough space to get up in the final strides to win by a head over even-money favorite Hop Sing and Roddy's Bags Again.



It was Pacific Renegade's fourth win of the year. He has been first or second in six of nine starts this year and has a lifetime bankroll of $248,186 with wins in 18 of 71 efforts.



The son of Cam's Card Shark is trained by Tom Fanning and owned by Joseph Smith.



"He got lucky," Gingras acknowledged. "He is one of the top three best horses in this series, but he hasn't been behaving himself recently. He has been all over the racetrack. Tonight, I was just concerned with him going forward to the wire should he be lucky enough to get out."



Pacific Renegade was not as well behaved in last week's Four Leaf Clover leg. when he finished second.



"He was pretty impressive tonight," noted Fanning. "He left hard and finishing like that is pretty impressive. We changed his equipment. We took his blinkers off and put eye screens on him [known as the "Pelling Pacifier"] with tape on the inside to limit his field of vision to what is right in front of him. Yannick said he was more relaxed tonight. Last week he kicked him in the post parade. This week he behaved himself. I give a lot of credit to Yannick. He is not an easy horse to drive, and he gets a lot out of him."



Shu Hanover [$9.40, $3.40, $2.10], who had broken stride and finished distanced last week, rebounded in the second division to win by a length and a half over 1-2 favorite Jenna's Choice. Whodunit got up for third, two lengths back.



Jenna's Choice, the Aquarius Series sweeper who had captured his opening leg of the Four Leaf Clover, had his winning streak snapped at four.



Shu Hanover, driven by David Miller and trained by Ken Rucker, improved his record to two wins and one second in five starts this year.



"They did some rigging on him," noted Miller. "It is nice to see him back in form. I am looking forward to next week."



"I am very happy," said Rucker, who owns Shu Hanover in partnership with Jordan Sklut of Portage, Indiana and Centaur Stable Oak Lawn, Illinois. "He has got us guessing. We changed a couple of little things but half of the time he is just goofy. This horse can get unhappy very easy. We are just hoping we can remember everything we did [that worked]."



Shu Hanover now has 30 wins, 14 seconds and four thirds from 72 career starts and earnings of $310,514.



Fate's Place, an opening round winner, was scratched sick but is expected to be back by next week. (Meadowlands press release)

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