Beckwith scores 2,000 as Lou Hill stuns rivals

East Rutherford, NJ – On a night when the front – or very close to it – was the place to be, Lou Hill found himself three-quarters into a third-over flow before tipping in the stretch and sprinting home to down the 4-5 favorite Pinny Tiger A in the Saturday evening (December 27) night racing at The Meadowlands, the $30,000 Open Handicap for pacers.

LOU HILL REPEAT

The race looked like a duel between Pinny Tiger A, the winner of last week’s event, who was looking for a sixth straight win, and 9-5 second choice Christopher Dance N, winner of eight of 12 races this year, including a lifetime best performance of 1:49.3 earlier this season at The Big M.

Predictably, the two favorites were on the move from the start, with ‘Christopher’ leading while parked on the quarter in :26 before ‘Pinny’ took over at the three-eighths and hitting the half in :54.

A live stream developed along the backstretch as Ammo, Captain Moore A and Lou Hill made a deliberate but effective march towards the leader, reaching three-quarters in 1:21.4.

It looked like Pinny Tiger A was going to do it again at the halfway point, but after going around the far turn at cover three wide, driver Austin Siegelman waved Lou Hill into the four-way as he stood up, and the 4-year-old gelding son of Dear Lou-Beautiful Katherine responded with an explosive pace and simply stepped on the wire to record a feature win in a three-way snap that saw Pinny Tiger A take second and Captain Moore A third. Per Engblom’s trainee completed the mile in the best time of his life: 1:49.

“I had a perfect trip in third and he was the best,” Siegelman said. “I thought he could do it from the pace.”

Owned by Tom Hill, Lou Hill now has 13 wins in 39 career tries for earnings of $332,302. As the third pick in the 9-1 bet, Lou Hill returned $21.60 to his backers.

BECKWITH IS TWO BIG: Driver Brett Beckwith capped off his stellar year with The Big M by becoming the youngest driver in harness racing history to reach the 2,000 career win plateau. The 22-year-old pilot won the fifth race with Belmont Major N and reached that high number. Tyler Smith was the youngest at 2,000 years old.

Not surprisingly, Beckwith led the driver colony with four wins on the night, finishing the year well at the front of the Meadowlands driver dash-win standings with 146. Mark Herschberger was second with 99.

Dan Patch Trainer of the Year Ron Burke finished 2025 at the top of the Big M conditioner leaderboard with 57 winners. Jeff Cullipher was next with 54.

A LITTLE MORE: Joe Bongiorno’s doppelgänger led the trainer colony. … All sources for the 14-race program totaled $2,683,068. … Racing resumes Friday (Jan. 2) at 6:20 p.m

For full race results, click here: American trotting results

Through Dave Kleinfor The Meadowlands