2025 Meadowlands Pace, Part 2: Race Day Recap

HorseDoc® Dr. Gregory Beroza was onsite for the most exciting night in harness racing. Get all the details here.

Meadowlands Pace Trophy. Photo by GBeroza.

The 2025 Meadowlands Pace was unique and exciting for many reasons. The race was another shoot-out of two super-competitive horses and drivers to determine the who would emerge victorious. This time it was the second place finisher in the North American Cup’s, Madden Oaks. Madden Oaks went in wearing #9 and at 5:2 odds, battling to take the lead away from current Meadowlands’ Pace challenger #9, Prince Hal Hanover at 7:2 odds. This was Madden Oaks’s driver Braxton Boyd’s second attempt to win one of North America’s premier pacing championship races. On June 14th, he was unsuccessful in his attempt to take down North America’s best three-year-old pacer, Louprint at the 2025 North American Cup at Woodbine Mohawk Park Racetrack in Campbellville, Canada.

Louprint was a late scratch out of the Meadowlands Pace due to an emergency surgery to remove a testicle. His absence changed the strategic complexity of the race.

Prior to the race, we interviewed many of those in the race and other prominent Standardbred racing experts on-site for their night’s predictions. Interviewees included Hambletonian Society executive and retired Standardbred Hall of Fame driver John Campbell, Madden Oaks’s trainer Camerone Capone, and driver Braxton Boyd. We also interviewed Prince Hal Hanover’s trainer and co-owner Dr. Ian Moore, Meadowlands Media and Fox Sports TV commentators Jessica Otten, Gabe Prewitt, Dave Little, Rachel Ryan, and notable others. Their comments and speculations brought the consensus down to three to four standout horse and drivers, while all agreed that anyone in the race had a shot for a winning performance.

Prince Hal Hanover and Madden Oaks. Photo by Lisa Photo.

On the day of the race, Dr. Ian Moore’s #4, Princed Hal Hanover, crossed the wire first and was announced as the winner. However, there was an immediate inquiry requiring all bettors to hold their tickets. A lengthy inquiry ensued while the judges determined which horse was the winner. The video of the portion of the race in question was played multiple times in live time and slow motion on the track’s big screen. Madden Oak’s driver Braxton Boyd claimed to have been blocked from getting through his inside lane which was temporarily blocked by Prince Hal Hanover’s driver Todd McCarthy. When asked if he thought he could have gone by Prince Hal Hanover in the stretch, Boyd’s answer was an emphatic “Absolutely.” The subsequent inquiry and results will forever be memorialized in standardbred racing history books.

Inquiry intereference. Photo courtesy of Meadowlands Media.

Madden Oaks was eventually recognized as the 2025 Meadowlands Pace winner and Prince Hal Hanover was taken down to second place. The final order of finish for the first five contestants was:

This isn’t the first time an inquiry has caused an upset immediately following a race. In 2021, Dr. Ian Moore controversially won the Meadowlands Pace when his horse Lawless Shadow, driven by Mark MacDonald, won an inquiry, setting down challenger Charlie May, driven by Dave Miller, to a ninth-place finish due to interference that was ruled to have affected several contestants.

Home stretch. Photo courtesy of Meadowlands Media.

HorseDoc® subsequently followed Madden Oaks, trainer Camerone Capone, and driver Braxton Boyd to the Winner’s Circle for an emotional celebration by the youngest trainer-driver combination to have won this prestigious race. Trainer Cameron ‘Cam’ Capone just turned 26 and driver Braxton Boyd is 25. Capone and Boyd were each overcome with emotions regarding their historic accomplishment.

You can see all interviews in this 12-minute video:

Dr. Gregory A. Beroza, DVM, DACVS, DABVP has been a practicing veterinarian and consultant for 42 years; and HorseDoc® ‘Talking Horses’® media host, author, and consultant since 2007. Dr. Beroza is a multimedia host and broadcasts his productions, including a new Podcast, via his WuzUpDoc Media website: www.WuzUpDoc.com. He can be found on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and other social media sources.

Thanks to ‘HorseDoc’ Sponsors:  Alex Nichols Agency; BMB IT Solutions, Chestnut Vale Feed, Cosequin Joint Health Supplement, Douglas Elliman Real Estate, Great American Insurance-Equine Division; Hopscotch Air Taxi; Jaguar; JSR Farriers-Equine Transport; Land Rover; Nutrena; Oheka Castle Hotel & Estate; Ramard Nutraceuticals; Range Rover; Supporting Strategies; Ultravet Medical Devices