BY FRANK DRUCKER,
Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS, NY, Saturday, October 15, 2016—She classes up the joint.
Bee a Magician (Brian Sears, $3.30), in her first purse try since
late May here, didn’t disappoint Saturday afternoon, winning Yonkers Raceway’s
$250,000 Invitational Trot.
Away third from post position No. 2 in the mile-and-a-quarter
event, Bee a Magician saw a couple of ladies, polester Barn Doll (Jeff Gregory)
and Allerage Star (Andy Miller), plus Homicide Hunter (Eric Goodell) all offer
early foot.
After a :27.4 opening quarter-mile, and with Homicide Hunter
finding a seat behind her, the fave was pointed forward. Bee a Magician made
the lead before a :57.4 half, with second-tier Melady’s Monet (Jason Bartlett)
first-up from sixth.
That one engaged the leader through a soft 1:28 three-quarters
(mile in 1:57), with Bee a Magician owned a length-and-a-half lead in and out
of the final turn.
She held sway from there, repelling a stubborn “Melady” by
three-quarters of a length in 2:25.1. Barn Doll was a pocket third, with Windofthenorth
(Corey Callahan) and Lookslikeachipndale (Dan Dube) settling for the smaller
envelopes.
For Bee a Magician, a 6-year-old daughter of Kadabra trained by
Nifty Norman for co-owners David McDuffee, Mel Hartman and Herb Liverman, she’s
now 4-for-4 this season and 45-for-69 in her brilliant career (just shy of $4
million).
The exacta paid $26.20, with the triple returned $109.50.
“To have a horse ready to go the mile-and-a-quarter against a very
good field after nearly five months is a credit to Nifty (Norman) and a credit
to her,” Sears said.
“I qualified her this past Tuesday (Meadowlands), and she was
impressive. Today, she was back to her ornery self and it was good to see.”
