Meadowlands

The Meadowlands Country Club foursome of Thomas Kardish, Charles Marte Jr., Gary Rodgers and Andrew Sivak combined for a winning score of 126 on its home course yesterday in the Golf Association of Philadelphia's Pro-President tournament. The competition was held after a seminar for club officials that featured author James Finegan. The tournament, using a net two-best-balls-of-foursome format, consisted of 61 four-player teams at Meadowlands and Cedarbrook. Little Mill's Steven Backstrom, Ken Peyre-Ferry, John Hughey and Edward Laird prevailed at Cedarbrook with a 132.

Faced with a threatened shutdown of the Meadowlands race track today because of a contract dispute between harness horsemen and track operators, the New Jersey Racing Commission last night ordered the track to continue operating. Commission chairman Stuart O. Goldsmith also directed the track's horsemen to enter horses for Thursday's racing program. After daylong negotiations, the Meadowlands operators and officials of the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association of New Jersey failed to reach agreement on a new contract.

John Frasco believes metropolitan New York should be part of the CART Indy- car circuit. Frasco, CART's chairman, wants New York as badly as Michael Dukakis and George Bush want to be president. Frasco does not get much support from the crews and drivers, though. They think the Indy-car race at the Meadowlands is one of the least popular stops on the 15-race schedule. There are too many hassles getting around the asphalt-covered Meadowlands area, which never will be described as scenic.

The New York Giants yesterday reached an agreement with the state of New Jersey that will allow the team to build a new $750 million stadium in the Meadowlands. "This is a good deal for New Jersey taxpayers," acting Gov. Richard J. Codey said. "We're going to get a brand-new stadium with one of the best deals in the country. " The Giants have long offered to pay the entire cost of the stadium. But negotiations stalled last month because of the Giants' concerns regarding game-day traffic from Xanadu, a $1.3 billion shopping and entertainment complex being built at the Meadowlands.

The New Jersey Racing Commission yesterday approved a continuation of Garden State Park's simulcasts to the Meadowlands, assuring that the Cherry Hill track would continue its live harness racing at least into mid-November. If simulcasting between the two had stopped, Garden State would have closed down its live harness season, which is scheduled to run through Dec. 20. Garden State president Robert J. Quigley said after the commission meeting at the Meadowlands that he would have wasted little time in pulling the plug on the harness season if the track did not have additional revenue from the dual simulcasts.

Maybe the asphalt capital of North America is not the place to hold an Indy-car race. Mid-Ohio, Laguna Seca, Calif., and Road America at Elkhart Lake, Wis., are the most scenic Indy-car road racing courses. The Meadowlands, site of Sunday's Chase Grand Prix, is scenic only if you prefer asphalt over grass. The best road courses are in the country, where there are hills and grass. At the Meadowlands, the most prominent features are Byrne Arena, Giants Stadium, the Meadowlands race track and parking lots.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Standing in another half-built development that will get hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives, Gov. Christie today ushered in the "American Dream" to northern New Jersey. The much-maligned and long-delayed Xanadu development at the Meadowlands, which Christie himself has called the "the ugliest damn building in New Jersey, and maybe America," will get a makeover by the Canadian developer who built Mall of America in Minnesota. Next to the Jets' and Giants' stadium, with a dead-on view of the Manhattan skyline, the complex to be called American Dream at Meadowlands will feature high-end shopping, a 26-screen movie theater, nightclubs, a performing arts theater, world-class restaurants, an indoor ice skating rink, and an indoor ski slope (with moguls and a snowboard half-pipe)

The Meadowlands Racetrack, the financial underpinning of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, opens its 10th thoroughbred season tomorrow night. The evening card will feature split divisions of the Boiling Springs Handicap for 3-year-old fillies. After tomorrow's card, the track will be closed Saturday - for the Giants-Steelers exhibition football game at the authority's Giants Stadium - and Sunday, a dark day in New Jersey. The northern New Jersey track will reopen with an afternoon Labor Day card, which also represents a milestone for the Meadowlands.

For the second time in three seasons, Temple is moving a home game against Penn State from Veterans Stadium due to a scheduling conflict with the Phillies. On Sept. 21, the Owls will play Penn State at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. In 1994, the game was moved from the Vet to Franklin Field. Penn State, which played Rutgers at the Meadowlands last season, also will meet Southern Cal there on Aug. 25 in the annual Kickoff Classic. Tickets, when they do go on sale, will be priced at $25. Kickoff time has not been announced.

NEWARK, N.J. - A long-delayed megamall project at the Meadowlands sports complex could take another step forward this week. The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority announced Wednesday that a vote on the American Dream project could take place at a special board meeting Friday. The authority has to approve a new master plan for the mall, which Gov. Christie has called "an offense to the eyes" because of its exterior, a mishmash of pastel panels visible from the New Jersey Turnpike.

NJ Transit officials are expected to take tough questioning from state and federal politicians on what steps were taken to protect their train fleet from the storm surge during Sandy. Hearings on the storm's impact on transportation infrastructure - scheduled in the U.S. Senate on Thursday and in the New Jersey Assembly on Dec. 10 - will examine why more than 300 rail cars and locomotives went under water at two yards in North Jersey, suffering damage that included waterlogged electrical systems and passenger compartments.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Trailing by three scores at the half, Andrew Luck walked out of the visitors' locker room at MetLife Stadium on Sunday as one confident rookie. He had been there before. In fact, it had only been a week earlier that Luck, the No. 1 overall pick in April's draft, had heroically carried his Colts back from an 18-point halftime deficit to beat the Packers, 30-27. In his fourth game as a pro, Luck had spotted Aaron Rodgers 18 points, and won. Accordingly, when asked on Sunday if he thought that he could replicate the previous week's comeback, Luck was emphatic.

John A. Cashman, Jr., 72, a long-time Hambletonian Society director and chairman of the Executive Committee of the Society since 2008, passed away Sept. 22 in Atlantis, Fla. His leadership and dedication to the sport of harness racing spanned the entire industry strata for more than 50 years - racing, breeding, track management and ownership, sales and syndication, stake racing preservation, and promoting and advancing the sport he loved. At a time in life when many would opt for a lesser role, Cashman led the efforts to promote and preserve the Hambletonian, harness racing's richest and most prestigious race, at the host track of the Meadowlands in New Jersey, where it has been raced since 1981.

With competition for a second Philadelphia casino license now under way, it's worth heeding Gov. Christie's wise caution about expanding gambling at the Meadowlands complex in North Jersey. Christie's staunch opposition to a Meadowlands casino, reiterated at an Assembly hearing last week, rests mostly on the sound observation that it could undermine the state's efforts to boost the fortunes of Atlantic City. The Shore resort has struggled in the face of growing competition from casinos in Pennsylvania and other states.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Controversial flames are being fanned once again for a casino here at the Meadowlands Complex. The revenue travails of Atlantic City, particularly this summer's disappointing early returns at the new Revel casino on the Boardwalk, are proof that New Jersey needs to expand gambling beyond the Shore resort, proponents of a Meadowlands casino say. The state Assembly's Regulatory Oversight and Gaming Committee held a...

Golf Association of Phila. WARNER CUP (NET) At Talamore; ages 55 and over. Overall Results Bob Abramski, Talamore. . . 64 Gary Tiller, Talamore. . . 65 Thomas Brennan, Blue Bell. . . 67 Gary Chlapaty, RiverCrest. . . 68 Louis Graziano, Bucks. . . 68 Francis Tan, Medford Lakes. . . 68 R. Rosenwasser, Hopewell Valley. . . 69 Ed Rogers, Concord. . . 69 Ed Brzezowski, Concord. . . 70 David Kearney, Lehigh.

Even before a team from the Meadowlands - the New York Giants - earned a spot in the Super Bowl, New Jersey was preparing for a Super Bowl at the Meadowlands. Two years from now. "An awful lot of preparation is required for an event of [that] size, and we are taking this quite seriously," said Lt. Steve Jones, spokesman for the state police. The NFL voted in 2010 to award the 2014 game to a bid led by the Giants and New York Jets, setting the stage for the first outdoor cold-weather Super Bowl.

Balancing a badge with barn duty paid off handsomely for Philadelphia police officer Owen Eiler Jr. on Thursday night as he scored his first Meadowlands stakes win with Dontevenknowmymame in the $58,500 Super Bowl final. Dontevenknowmymame came first up to clear the lead past the three-quarter marker and dug in for a 11/4-length victory over My Man in 1 minute, 57 seconds. All Munky Business was third. Dontevenknowmymame, driven to victory by Eric Abbatiello, paid $9.80 to win the sixth-race feature.

Owen Eiler Jr. is hoping for a big win in Thursday's $58,500 Super Bowl Series final for 4-year-old trotters at Meadowlands Racetrack. Eiler, a Philadelphia police officer, trains a small stable of horses in southern New Jersey in his spare time. His mare Dontevenknowmymame won her second-round race in the series and was second, by a head, in the first round. She will start the 10-horse final from post two with regular driver Eric Abbatiello. A victory in the Super Bowl final would give Eiler the most lucrative triumph of his training career, which is in its second full season.