Alysheba Sets Track Record in Close Win

Alysheba, ridden flawlessly by Chris McCarron, won the $600,000 Meadowlands Cup Friday night at The Meadowlands by a neck over the Slew City Slew in track-record time.

Alysheba was in third place for the first mile of the 1-mile race as Slew City Slew, ridden by Laffit Pincay, set a blistering pace.

Leaving the quarter-pole, Alysheba collared Bet Twice from the outside, then wore down Slew City Slew through the stretch. His time of 1:58 4/5 broke The Meadowlands’ track record of 2:00 2/5 and was only a second off Spectacular Bid’s world record of 1:57 4/5.

Alysheba, trained by Jack Van Berg, paid $3, $2.60, $2.l0 as the favorite of the crowd of 20,359. The $360,000 first prize boosted his career earnings to $5,329,242, second to John Henry’s record of $6.5 million.

Following the race, Clarence Scharbauer, Alysheba’s owner, indicated that the colt may be retired at the end of the year.

“We are not counting out next year,” he said, “but it’s a slim possibility.”

Pleasant Virginian, a 46-1 outsider, was a surprising third, 6 lengths behind the runner-up. Bet Twice faded to fourth, and Cryptoclearance was last throughout in the five-horse field.

Earlier in the evening, Pincay won all three supporting stakes, scoring with Consent ($9.00) in the $35,000 Comet Stakes, Feel the Beat ($13.00) in the $40,000 Abraham Clark Stakes and Ready Jet Go ($34.40) in the $150,000 Budweiser Breeders’ Cup.