NJSS CHAMP MCCUSTER SET TO RETURN IN HOME GROWN
McCusker’s emergence as a stakes winner last season proved to be something of a revelation and trainer George Ducharme is hoping for more good things from the pacer as he begins his 3-year-old campaign this weekend at The Meadowlands ...
HIGHTSTOWN, NJ -- April, 25, 2025 -- McCusker’s emergence as a stakes winner last season proved to be something of a revelation and trainer George Ducharme is hoping for more good things from the pacer as he begins his 3-year-old campaign this weekend at The Meadowlands.
Owned by breeder Winters Racing Stable, McCusker was last season’s New Jersey Sire Stakes champion for freshman male pacers. On Saturday, the gelded son of Cattlewash-Robocall Hanover meets eight rivals at The Big M in the $50,000 Home Grown Pace, a stakes event for horses N.J. sired, foaled or eligible to the N.J. Standardbred Development Fund.
McCusker and driver Dexter Dunn will leave from post four and are 4-1 on the morning line. He is the only horse in the field yet to race this season. Noel Daley-trained Smooth Dream, who captured his seasonal debut last week in 1:50.1 (the year’s best time for a sophomore pacer) is the 2-1 favorite from post five with Todd McCarthy in the sulky. Manolete, a multiple Grand Circuit winner and last year’s Home Grown champ, is 3-1.
“He’s doing well,” Ducharme said about McCusker, who prepped for his debut by winning two qualifiers earlier this month at Spring Garden Ranch training center in Florida. “He’s come back good, bigger and stronger than he was last year, and qualified well both times. His attitude has been really good. We’ll find out more going forward.
“Last year, he surprised us. Training down he acted like he was just an ordinary horse. He didn’t show me any flashes of being a top-end horse until we started racing. All of a sudden, we got him (to The Meadowlands) on the big track, and he came to his speed a lot better than I thought he was going to. He’s good gaited and he comes to his speed really quickly when you call on him.”
McCusker got the first of his two wins last season in the New Jersey Sire Stakes final on Aug. 22 at The Meadowlands, where he defeated Manolete by a head in 1:51.3. Two weeks later, he finished fourth behind Captain Optimistic, Manolete and Papis Pistol in the New Jersey Classic. Captain Optimistic went on to win the Governor’s Cup while Papis Pistol and Manolete finished 1-2 in the Kindergarten Classic Series final.
Following the Classic, McCusker headed to Plainridge Park and recorded a win and a second in three preliminary legs of the Massachusetts Sire Stakes. His season came to an end after an eighth-place finish in the final on Oct. 24. He finished the year with earnings of $165,400 in 10 starts.
“At the end of the year, he got a little tired and had a couple of rough trips,” Ducharme said. “He needed the break.”
This year, McCusker is eligible to the sire stakes series in New Jersey (which begins May 3) and Massachusetts, plus several Grand Circuit events such as the MGM Grand Messenger Stakes, Adios, Tompkins-Geers, and Little Brown Jug.
“We didn’t go crazy,” Ducharme said. “We paid him into a few things because in the fall he’s got Massachusetts. The money is pretty good in Mass to have him too tired at the end of the year. It’s only 30 horses eligible total, so your odds are a lot better than trying to race the big boys all summer.”
As for now, Ducharme is focused only on Saturday and getting McCusker’s first start under his belt.
“We planned on (the Home Grown Pace) to be his first start,” Ducharme said. “I’m sure he’s got to get stretched out. Noel’s horse won in (1):50 last week and Manolete was obviously good at the end of the year. But this is a good place to start him and have him tuned up for the sire stakes.”
Racing begins at 6:20 p.m. (EDT) at The Meadowlands. For free TrackMaster Platinum past performances for The Big M, visit the track’s website here.
