Jul 23, 2023 4 min read

It’s My Show entered Saturday afternoon’s elimination races for The Adios finals as a big favorite.

He stole the show, winning the second division in a world record 1:47.4.

The mile is the fastest ever by a 3-year-old gelding on a 5/8-mile track, bettering the former record shared by Wiggle It Jiggleit and Lucan Hanover.

Cannibal, trained by Nancy Takter, won the first division.

Those two 3-year-olds enter next Saturday’s 57th Adios Pace for the Orchids as the favorites. The purses for each division were $25,000.

Next week’s final is worth $350,000.

Before either one is draped with The Adios championship purple blanket in the winner’s circle at The Meadows, they’ll have to rebuff seven other contenders – which include a handful of local connections.

Seven Colors finished third to It’s My Show and was driven by The Meadows’ Dave Palone. Brian Brown, who trains several horses who race at The Meadows, conditions Seven Colors.

Palone, who took Seven Colors to the front, and finished third will drive the horse in the final.

Other local qualifiers are Ervin Hanover, trained by Ron Burke and driven by Ronnie Wrenn Jr. Flite Craft, who is trained by Norm Parker and driven by Mike Wilder, finished fourth in the second division.

Palone (1991 with Washington VC) and Wilder (2000 with Catch The Fire) have won The Adios.

Burke has won two Adios titles, including with Bythemissal last year. He also was his father’s training assistant with Adios champion May June Character.

The draw for Adios final post positions will take place Wednesday, with the connections of It’s My Show and Cannibal choosing their post positions after a random draw to determine their selection order. All other post positions will be determined by random draw.

The July 29 Adios Day card features five Grand Circuit stakes, in addition to the Adios. First post that day is 11:45 a.m.

In addition to It’s My Show, Cannibal, Seven Colors, Erving Hanover and Flite Craft, the Adios final field includes Redwood Hanover, Fulton, Ken Hanover, and Bamboozler (who was the qualifying fifth-place finisher.

Linda Toscano will be the only trainer with two finalists, as she also conditions Fulton.

It’s My Show, North American Cup champion, is now seven-for-seven this season. The gelding is coming into his own after a winless 2-year-old season where had two seconds and a third in eight starts.

“We castrated him,” said Toscano. “So that didn’t hurt. He was a nice horse last year who didn’t get it done. This year, he’s put it all together.

“(Driver) Scott (Zeron) has been telling me all along about him. Every start he’s tried a little different. He’s a nice horse.”

Zeron, who nearly stole the 2020 Adios with 50-1 long-shot Chief Mate, said Ken Hanover was the “last horse he wanted sitting on my back.”

“I rolled the dice and waited until the middle of back stretch to move him,” Zeron said. “He’s an amazing animal and he tries so hard.”

Takter is pleased with Cannibal’s performance.

“He raced super and I was super happy with him,” Takter said. “It’s the third week in a row he raced. He did a little work to get to the front. He got a good trip from there and capitalized on that. He’ll havea busy week. I hope he comes out of this great and he’ll be ready to go.”

Cannibal has won five of six races this season with his one loss in the Meadowlands Pace July 15.

Down the stretch

The handle for Saturday afternoon’s card was $668,000. . . Media speculation suggested The Meadows move The Adios to the third Saturday of August. That’s not going to happen, according to Scott Lishia, director of racing at Hollywood Casino and The Meadows Racetrack. “We have no intention to move the race and this is the first I am hearing of anything like this.” . . . The handle for the 2022 Adios day was $1.29 million.