BY
FRANK DRUCKER, Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS, NY, Wednesday, June 22,
2016—Yonkers Raceway’s driving colony has a different look this weekend, with
Messrs. Bartlett, Buter, Dube, Lachance and Stratton in Paris defending the
honor of the Red, White, Blue and Westchester.
Their absence offers chances for other
escorts, notably in Friday night’s $167,874 New York Sire Stakes Hugh Grant
Pace for 3-year-old colts and geldings.
A pair of equally-parsed $83,937 divisions
go consecutively as races 7 and 8.
Missile J (Jim Morrill Jr., post 6),
winner of last month’s $300,000 Art Rooney pace here, looms a solid choice in
the first division. The American Ideal gelding, trained by Linda Toscano for
co-owning stables KJ and Purple Haze, has six wins and nine board finishes in
10 seasonal starts ($227,675).
Manny (Chris Lems, post 5) was getting to
Missile J in their sire stakes showdown at Buffalo, missing a neck. The
American Ideal colt owns a NYSS win at Monticello.
Fine Diamond
(George Brennan, post 1) owns a Buffalo sire stakes win. Nox Vegas Bluechip
(Andrew McCarthy, post 2), Ideal Kiss (Pat Berry, post 3), Roll Away Joe (Pat
Berry, post 4), Endeavor (Steve Smith, post 7) and Carlos Danger (Brian Sears,
post 8) round out the opening division.
Friday’s second NYSS event includes
pole-sitting Artmagic (Brennan), who led to the lane in the Rooney and tries for
his first win of the season.
Craftship (Scott Zeron, post 3) has a
statebred win (Monti) and second (Buffalo) included in his recent resume,.
While Autotune Hanover (Morrill Jr., post 4) rebounded from a very poor effort
in the lone elim for the Rooney with a pair of sire stakes thirds.
JK Heaven Sent (Eric Carlson, post 2), Concur (Brent Holland, post 5), Beaches
De Vie (Smith, post 6), Bottom Deals (Sears, post 7) and Ideal Son (Vincent
Ginsburg) complete the second event.
Speaking of the AWOL French Connection,
post positions have been drawn for Friday’s first of two races in the Parisian
portion of the Drivers’ Cup. It’s the sixth race at Vincennes, contested at
2,100 meters (1 5/16 miles), with approximate post time at 10:03 PM local time
(4:03 PM ET). The purse is 36,000 Euros (approx. 50,000 U-S dollars).
1
|
AZARO DU CAUX
|
2100
|
69 710
|
J.J.
Bartlett
|
d4
|
||||
2
|
BAMBOU DE CALVI
|
2100
|
69 410
|
N.
Ensch
|
F4
|
||||
3
|
BOIS LE ROI
|
2100
|
68 140
|
T.
Buter
|
F4
|
||||
4
|
BETTINA D'AVRIL
|
2100
|
68 900
|
P.
Vercruysse
|
d4
|
||||
5
|
BETTINA
|
2100
|
67 705
|
J.
Stratton
|
d4
|
||||
6
|
ATTENTION DEVANT
|
2100
|
67 480
|
D.
Dube
|
d4
|
||||
7
|
ALIBI DE FOLIE
|
2100
|
69 590
|
P.
Levesque
|
F4
|
||||
8
|
AMADEO
|
2100
|
66 620
|
Prio.
|
P.
Lachance
|
F4
|
|||
9
|
BOLIDE DU GUET
|
2100
|
69 100
|
M.
Abrivard
|
d4
|
||||
10
|
BE LOVE DESBOIS
|
2100
|
58 850
|
Prio.
|
F.
Ouvrie
|
d4
|
|||
The competition ends with a Sunday (June
26) race, also at Vincennes.
