Latest news with #Meadowlands
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘A Crazy Sign': How Meadowlands Pace Winner Charlie May Inspired A Family
'A Crazy Sign': How Meadowlands Pace Winner Charlie May Inspired A Family originally appeared on Paulick Report. This is a story about a boy and a girl who loved a racehorse so much that he inspired them to combine a little old-fashioned stubbornness with a little divine intervention for the greatest gift of and Dean May are a married pair of 30-year-olds who love going to The Meadowlands. They aren't regulars, but the one date etched in stone on their calendar every year is Meadowlands Pace Night, a card they've attended for about a decade now. 'Since my brother Kevin turned 18 and was able to start betting on the races, it's been a tradition to go the track on Pace Night,' said Dean. 'My birthday is July 13 and my dad's birthday is July 12, so it's a birthday tradition to go to The Meadowlands whenever the Meadowlands Pace is.'The night of the 2021 Pace, a name in the program caught the May family's eye: Charlie May, who was in that night's featured event.'We bet on him in 2021,' said Amy. 'What's crazy is, we looked at the program and said we love that name, and so we got a picture [of the program] in the event we ever had a daughter. We have always loved the name Charlie for a girl and it was so cool to see the name with our last name. We bet on that race and lost [after Charlie May was disqualified]. That was a pivotal moment in our story. To see that he had actually been the winner [and then lost], it was a crazy sign to just show how intertwined we are with him. We didn't find out until recently that he was later declared the winner.' Fast forward to March of 2023, and the young engaged couple are getting close to their wedding day when they got some terrible news.'A month before we got married, I was told I couldn't ever have children,' said Amy. 'I'm somebody that doesn't take 'no' for an answer very easily. I was young and healthy and we did a bunch of genetic testing to see what was wrong and there was no rhyme or reason, so I just needed to try everything, get a few opinions. Our first doctor said I couldn't ever get pregnant, but I just kept being that squeaky wheel until somebody wanted to listen to me, and we found a doctor able to help us get pregnant, which was a miracle.''After we got married, we were at my parents' house and coordinated our honeymoon around Charlie May's race [the 2023 William Haughton Memorial] on Pace Night,' said Dean. 'We left for our honeymoon the day after.''When the race started, it was like a moment of defeat, it didn't look good. We hadn't really started the process of fertility yet with the new doctor, so it was just kind of like a bad case of icing on the cake. Oh, we lose again.' But, then, driver Dave Miller skillfully guided Charlie May to a ground-saving trip and rallied to grab the win in 1:47.1 at odds of 30-1.'When Charlie May came around and won, the feeling is something I will never forget,' said Amy. 'It was a great moment. We didn't tell anybody the love we had for the name Charlie and how we felt connected to the horse, but Dean's family was there, and they all decided to bet on it, too. It was truly an experience I will never forget. We were all jumping up and down. It was everything that we needed to go on our honeymoon. It truly felt like it was a sign from God. A sign from up above.'It was like, it's OK, keep pushing, yes, you've been in last place, and, yes, you've been put down. But you are meant to be parents, your baby is meant to be out there. It's all going to work out.' About six months after getting married, the Mays were pregnant. Then, on June 19, 2024, Charlie May, the little girl, was born. 'Charlie' is the name on her birth certificate. It's the way it had to be for Amy and May's road from disqualified in the Meadowlands Pace to being named the actual winner sometime later after getting the DQ overturned was the first part of this perfect parlay. His win in the Haughton as a long shot when it appeared early-on he had no chance made things complete. The horse Charlie May served as inspiration to the parents of little girl Charlie May. The May family will be at the mile oval on the night of July 12, when the $700,000 (est.) Meadowlands Pace tops a star-studded card. It's unclear if their favorite horse will be racing that night, but are optimistic their little girl and the horse she's named for will at some point come face-to-face.'We've been in touch with [Charlie May's] owner, Don Tiger,' said Dean. 'And, he promised us, one way or the other, that the picture of the two Charlie Mays will happen.' 'It will complete the whole story,' said Amy. 'After talking with Don, it truly showed there is a reason why we are connected to this horse. There are just so many similarities with both of our stories, and I want our Charlie to know how special she is, too, and I want a picture of her with the horse that she can see when she grows up. Don and his wife had some of the same issues Dean and I had as well.'The Pace is something special to our family. The Meadowlands, it's truly a place where people can get together and have a good time. We have a ton of friends and family who come out for the Pace. We have a good time. It's special to be together. It means a lot.' This story was originally reported by Paulick Report on Jun 27, 2025, where it first appeared.
Telegraph
20-06-2025
- Climate
- Telegraph
I visited the World Cup final venue in New York... it is dull and dangerously hot
It is 10.45am at the MetLife Stadium, but it is already dangerously hot. It is 32C in the shade and some fans are feeling it as they walk. Two New Jersey state police officers are sitting in a gazebo outside the vast steel perimeter of what will be the venue for next year's World Cup final. Directly behind them is a large air conditioning unit – pumping chill air out into the open as the searing heat bounces off the tarmac and concrete that stretches out across the vast surrounding car parks and into the rest of the Meadowlands sports complex beyond. The officers are happy, but environmentally, it is a disaster. The 10.45am local time may well be at half-time during next year's World Cup final, which takes place in this stadium not in mid-June but on July 19, the absolute height of summer. And so this is what happened when attending a Club World Cup group game, between the Brazilian club Palmeiras and the Egyptian champions Al-Ahly. It is a story of a fixture that started at midday and was therefore due to finish before 2pm, and eventually ended at 2.52pm because the stands were evacuated due to a severe weather warning, including the small risk of a tornado. Even then, English referee Anthony Taylor should have announced far more than just six minutes of added time. But by then the players had stopped. It is also the story of another half-empty stadium – just 35,179 inside this huge open bowl that holds 82,500 – and of an Uber taxi driver trying to charge $150 (£111.40) in the middle of the afternoon for the tortuously slow eight-mile trip back into central New York. When challenged, he immediately dropped his price to $100 – still a rip-off. And it is the story of an apparently unloved stadium, built just 18 years ago and criticised for its lack of character and atmosphere, where it can take up to two hours to get out of the car park, but which will host the most watched sports event in the world with five billion viewers. First the heat. Fifa will not confirm the kick-off time for next year's final until after the World Cup draw in December. But there is speculation it could be as early as 10am (3pm UK time), although the semi-finals and final of this tournament, also held here, are scheduled for 3pm local time (8pm in the UK). That feels more likely. The humidity on my visit was 60 per cent and that is on the cusp of affecting sports performance, according to experts. At 1.25pm, the game was suspended. Just over an hour had been played when it was announced that everyone in the stands and the players on the pitch had to leave to take shelter inside the stadium because of a potential lightning storm. There was even a small chance of a tornado. A message emblazoned on the giant screens read: 'Your attention please. For your safety, we are going to have everyone leave the seating bowl area and take shelter inside the stadium because of severe weather in the area. Those on the field, please walk calmly to the nearest tunnel, to the West Hall, or the service corridor.' The delay, with Palmeiras 2-0 up, lasted 50 minutes. Many fans of Al-Ahly – there is a large Egyptian diaspora in the United States and New Jersey in particular – simply decided not to return. There was even a delay to the delay as Taylor could not get his communication equipment to work and then we waited for the broadcasters to be ready. Just 14 minutes later there was a drinks break, the second of the game, but interest among fans had dwindled by then and the game petered away. Is this the kind of football Fifa wants? The first drinks stop came after half an hour with players already being draped in wet towels and handed ice packs. When Taylor announced over the PA system that he was rescinding a red card he had wrongly awarded for a tackle, after a VAR check, the sweat was pouring down his shaved head. Weather cannot be controlled but how will such a delay and an apparent dwindling of interest look for next year's World Cup final? Instead of trying to explain what was going on, the officials spent their time trying to stop journalists live-streaming and checking their accreditations. After all, all Fifa content must be protected, even at the price of preventing information being spread. It was not just the players feeling the heat. There is very little shade inside this enormous roofless bowl for the supporters with those at the vertiginous top also having pretty poor views. Small bottles of water were selling for $5 and Bud Light beer at $14. Hot dogs? They were $8.50 and a pretzel $9 – plus tax. Not that the police liked anyone walking around with a water bottle. I was stopped and surrounded by no fewer than eight officers and had to have my bag checked, firstly by a sniffer dog. Fifa will set its own prices – do not expect them to go down – and deliver its own branding for the World Cup, which is partly why it has chosen for the tournament so many bigger American football stadiums, such as this one, the home of the New York Jets and Giants. Only 12 of the 63 games are being played in stadiums specifically designed for 'soccer', with eight of the 12 grounds having capacities of at least 65,000. Four of them will be used at the World Cup, with the MetLife hosting the most games. This competition is a dry run. A very dry run, given the temperature. The Club World Cup game was tough going. It was the third to be played in this stadium already during this tournament with the previous two ending goalless. When a score arrived it was an own goal headed headed in by Al-Ahly striker Wessam Abou Ali before Palmeiras substitute José Manuel López broke away to add a smartly taken second. At that point, an Egyptian journalist in the press box, wearing a red Al-Ahly shirt and who had been shouting throughout the game, unplugged his phone and walked away in disgust. Even the playing surface at the stadium has been criticised. The MetLife pitch with its synthetic grass is notoriously disliked by the NFL players – with 13 serious injuries suffered in the past five years, including famed quarterback Aaron Rodgers tearing his Achilles, so Fifa installed real turf. But players and coaches at this tournament have not been impressed and right up until kick-off, and then at half-time, four large firemen's hoses were dragged on to drench the pitch. It still quickly dried out. Getting to the MetLife is not easy. The stadium is in East Rutherford, right in the middle of Meadowlands, to the west of New York, near to the highways that lead into the city and the main routes around New Jersey. There is simply nothing else nearby and fans are told not to attempt to walk from local hotels. 'It is illegal and dangerous,' they have been warned in one poster. There are plenty of parking spaces for about $50, but how many fans attending the World Cup will have cars? And, it takes up to two hours to get out of the car parks – longer than the actual game unless there is another weather incident. The Meadowlands rail station, right on the doorstep, is open on match days, although fans were being directed instead to buses at the final whistle and it is a slow journey from Secaucus Junction, where they have to change trains to New York Penn Street. The Palmeiras supporters,who had taken over Brooklyn Bridge, were out in force, smuggling in flags and banners far bigger than those permitted by Fifa and trying to create any atmosphere. But this stadium lacks any character. It just feels a bit drab and grey and unsuitable and has been plonked in the middle of nowhere. It is dull, much like the football played here during this tournament so far. Even though ticket prices had been cut to just $38, huge sections of the stadium – three-quarters of the top tier and even more of the middle one – were closed and taken off sale. It will be different for the World Cup and the latter stages of this competition. Demand will be far higher. But that raises more serious questions, with complaints that the walkways out are too narrow for huge crowds to easily disperse. Maybe it will look differently next year when it is kitted out by Fifa, even if it will be hard to transform a stadium which has been compared to an air conditioning unit in the way it looks and the way it feels. Which, of course, is where we started.
Washington Post
18-06-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
Bucky wins competitive wiener dog derby. His training was playing fetch.
When Adriana Smith brought her dachshund Bucky to the seventh annual Meadowlands Racetrack Wiener Dog Derby, she wasn't expecting much. Last year he didn't even finish the race. 'He got lost,' Smith said. 'He had no idea where he was going.' But, to Smith's shock, Bucky had laserlike focus this year. He didn't get lost. Egged on by the roaring crowd of thousands, Bucky's tiny legs carried him over the finish line ahead of the other sausage dogs. He had outrun 79 other wieners to clinch the championship.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Jaxson Dart's Terrible OTAs Left Fans in Disbelief About Skipping Shedeur Sanders
Jaxson Dart's Terrible OTAs Left Fans in Disbelief About Skipping Shedeur Sanders originally appeared on Athlon Sports. As Shedeur Sanders continues to trend upwards with the Cleveland Browns, another rookie quarterback is having a hard time getting adjusted. Advertisement There weren't many teams past the Tennessee Titans who needed a QB in the 2025 NFL Draft. But one team in particular, the New York Giants, was shopping aggressively. Sanders was linked to the G-Men in the pre-draft process for several reasons. They held a top-five pick, sent all of their scouting staff to Boulder for CU's Pro Day, and had a well-documented history of courting Sanders during the 2024 season. But in the end, the Giants skipped Sanders and trading up at the end of the first round to select Ole Miss' Jaxson Dart. It was the beginning of Sanders' slide. But was that a costly mistake for Brian Daboll and his staff? With OTAs underway, Dart has yet to have a spectacular day in the Meadowlands. The former Rebels passer reportedly went 5-for-9 with two interceptions on Thursday. Related: Browns OC Sends Clear Message About Shedeur Sanders in QB Battle Many people are now questioning if the Giants made the wrong decision by not taking Sanders. Of course, these are just practices and there's nothing at real game speed. However, the pressure is on for Daboll and his staff to show progress during the upcoming season, according to sources. It's the reason why New York signed Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston in free agency. Advertisement Related: Deion Sanders Reveals He's Been Battling Health Issues During Offseason Whether or not Dart's struggles will set off alarms for the Giants remains to be seen. Still, there will be a point where passing of Sanders might be a regret for New York and other NFL teams. This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 6, 2025, where it first appeared.
Bloomberg
28-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
NJ's American Dream Mall Sees Value Drop by $800 Million in 2025
The value of the American Dream mega mall and entertainment complex in New Jersey's Meadowlands plummeted by $800 million — a blow to municipal bondholders whose debt is backed by payments in lieu of property taxes. The 3.5 million square-foot venue, which includes an amusement park, water park and ski slope, was assessed at $2.5 billion by the Borough of East Rutherford for the quarter ending June 30, according to a revised tax bill posted late Tuesday on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board 's EMMA website. The mall's previous value was estimated at $3.3 billion.
