BY
FRANK DRUCKER, Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS, NY, Saturday, June 25,
2016—Yonkers Raceway had its version of Old Home Week Saturday night…
…provided “Old Home” was Chicago. All that
was missing was deep-dish pizza and Oprah.
Tony Morgan—making his first Westchester
appearance since September of 2012—and Brent Holland each had three wins during
the dozen-race card.
Morgan, he of the 15,400-plus career victories, earned a place in the local
record books when pole-sitting Go Daddy Go ($13) won the $30,000 4-Year-Old
Open Handicap Pace in a spiffy 1:50.1.
The Ponder gelding, co-owned (as Allard Racing) by (trainer) Rene Allard and
Bruce Soulsby, became the fourth member of the all-age-track-record club,
joining Crombie A, Forty Five Red and Limelight Beach.
It was also the swiftest local mile of the
season.
Morgan also won the co-featured $45,000
Open Pace with favored Doctor Butch ($5.30) in 1:51.2, and the $26,000, 11th
race trot with a left-alone Major Athens ($4.10) in 1:53.3.
That effort matched the fastest
Westchester trot mile of the season with E R Ellie.
Connecting the dots, “Ellie” (Larry Stalbaum,
$14.40) won the co-featured $45,000 Open Handicap Trot from the pocket in 1:55.
As for Holland, he upset the apple cart
with American Venture ($57) in the $18,000, second-race pace (1:52), then
escorted Mah Sish N ($9) in the $18,000, third-race pace.
The Holland Hat Trick was completed with
Moonliteonthebeach ($23.80) was a first-up winner in the $26,500 pacing finale
(1:52.2).
