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Wednesday, June 22, 2016

EMPIRE’S GLAMOUR GANG SET FOR FRIDAY’S 167G GRANT PACE; FIRST OF TWO VINCENNES DRIVERS’ CUP EVENTS DRAWN


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.