BY FRANK
DRUCKER, Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS, NY, Sunday, November 9,
2014—Yonkers Raceway’s first of six Sunday matinees debuted with an
enthusiastic—and curious—crowd, terrific weather and “beaucoup de chevaux”
(French for ‘many horses’…author cheated and looked).
The half-dozen, late-morning starts
(first post here was 11:19 AM ET) began with five trotting events, each one
oversized (11, 12, 10, 10 and 10 horses, respectively) , “over-distanced” (1¼
miles) and exported to France. There are the usual dozen races on the card.
Included in that opening quintet was the
weekly trotting feature, with a vitamin-enriched dowry of $46,000 (all 12 of
the Sunday races featured increased purses). Odds-on DW’s NY Yank (George
Brennan, $3), starting from post position No. 3, held off a pocket-sitting,
62-1 NF Happenstance (Jeff Gregory) by a length in 2:25.4 for the
mile-and-one-quarter.
The first oversized field trot—pared down to 11 after a defection due to
sickness—was won by Rossini (Dan Dube, $6). From post position No. 10 in the
second tier, Rossini, as the second choice, defeated 3-2 favorite Theraputic
(Brennan) by a head in 2:28 for the added distance.
“It’s new for all of us, horses and
drivers,” Brennan said after the second race.. “It’s an experiment, and
hopefully it catches on. We have to try something different, and I have no
problem with it. Of course, I had a win and a second in the first two races, so
I’m not complaining.” (note Brennan finished with two wins and a trio of seconds,
while Dube won thrice.)
As far as wagering went, the North
American numbers were $492,926 for the dozen races, and that was with a limited
exotics menu for the early races.
The French figures (again, first five
races only) were just under $1.4 million Euros (1 Euro is a bit less than 1.25
U.S. dollars, so approximately $1.75 million).
The Raceway's five-program-per-week live schedule now offers first post every
Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday (first post 7:10 PM), and Sunday matinees
(replacing Tuesday evenings) beginning at 11 AM, give or take a few minutes.
Evening simulcasting accompanies all live programs, with afternoon simulcasting
available daily.
