BY
FRANK DRUCKER, Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS, NY, Tuesday, June 2,
2015—Buoyed
by a carryover of $9,051.50, Yonkers Raceway’s
Tuesday afternoon Pick 5 found an audience.
Some $22,023 of fresh money was thrown
into the till, creating a total pool (after takeout) in excess of $25,000.
What made the wager even harder to
handicap was the entire quintet of races were “French” trots, as in added
distance (1¼ miles) and overflow fields (twelve, eleven [after a scratch] and
three tens, respectively).
The Pick 5 began with the
$54,800 Open Handicap Trot, won by Crazy About Pat (Mark MacDonald, $12.20).
The former New York Sire stakes champ survived a sustained wide bid to edge Il
Mago (Scott Zeron) by a neck in 2:28.1 for the extra acreage. It was 6-5
favorite Luminosity (George Brennan) leading to the lane before fading to
third.
When the soggy dirt settled,
the combination of 1-2-8-10-2 resulted in the Pick 5 pot going unclaimed for
the second consecutive card. That means the sumptuous sum of $25,569.51 gets
hermetically sealed, then carried over to the next live racing program of
Saturday, June 13.
Also Tuesday, a
Spanish-American Friendship Trot saw the hosts perhaps get a bit too friendly,
as the Spaniards finished 1-2-3. The $13,000 event was won by Jaume Riera and
Amalfi Coast ($10.40) in 2:00.3. That tandem defeated Movement (Bernardo Cirer)
by three-quarters of a length, with Sweet Ben (Miquel Capo)
third.
As mentioned above, the
Raceway now goes on hiatus, with live racing and evening simulcasting returning
a week from Saturday. Afternoon simulcasting is offered daily, including this
Saturday’s (June 6) Belmont Stakes (first post 11:35 AM).
