YONKERS, NY, Wednesday, March 28, 2012--"Six" was the magic number of divisions in last week's opening round of Yonkers Raceway's George Morton Levy Memorial Pacing Series.
As luck would have it, "six" is again the defining digit for Saturday night's second round, as in races 3,4,6,7,8 and 9...at $50,000 a pop.
All six winners from their first-round forays are back in search of encores.
Real Nice, who was able to get the better of a stubborn, season-debuting Foiled Again last week (local season's-fastest 1:51.1), landed the pylons as the 4-5 early choice in the opening event. Jason Bartlett again drives the defending series champ for trainer Rich Banca. Real Nice, a 7-year-old Real Artist gelding, becomes a millionaire with any payday here.
Among his rivals in Reibercrombie (Brian Sears, post 7), who was a 15-1 upsetter in his first-round group.
Triple millionaire Foiled Again, who won this series in 2009 and 2010, also looms a puny parimutuel proposition. The 3-5 early choice landed post No.2 in the final event, with Yannick Gingras again seated for trained Ron Burke.
Strand Hanover (Sears, post 6), a solid, off-the-pace winner a week ago, has three consecutive victories at three different ovals.
A pair of first-round winners, Atochia (Gingras, post 1) and Art Z (Brett Miller, post 3), oppose one another in the second Levy division. The former has earned in excess of $1.3 million during his career, while the latter has won his last couple, including the $78.400 final of the Meadowlands’ Four Leaf Clover.
Yonkers' five-night-per-week (Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Friday/Saturday) live schedule continues. First post for all programs remains at 7:10 PM. Evening simulating accompanies all live programs, with afternoon simulating available around the NYRA schedule (please be advised NYRA is dark the next two Sundays).
