BY FRANK DRUCKER,
Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS,
NY, Wednesday, October 5, 2016—Millionaire Obrigado has accepted an invitation
to the compete in Yonkers Raceway’s $1 million Yonkers International Trot,
scheduled for Saturday afternoon, Oct. 15th.
Obrigado
replaces Italy’s Ringostarr Treb, who had to bow out with some blood issues and
did not make the trip stateside.
Obrigado,
a 6-year-old Boy Band gelding, has been the best thing to come out of Maine
since bottled water, sporting career earnings of $1,362,019.
Co-owned
by (trainer) Paul Kelley, Linwood Higgins SRF Stable and Stable 45, Obrigado
has won six of his 14 seasonal starts ($614,320). He comes off a win in the
$160,000 Dayton Trotting Derby this past Friday (1:53.2).
Obrigado
owns a 1:51.2 life-mark, taken this past August in winning the $193,000
Crawford at Vernon Downs. Mark MacDonald has the driving assignment.
Earlier
Wednesday, the six Europeans in the Trot field touched down at John F. Kennedy
International Airport in their flight from Belgium. The six-pack included BBS
Sugarlight (Norway), Explosive de Vie (Sweden), Jonesy (Finland), Oasis Bi
(Italy), On Track Piraten (Sweden) and Tano Bork (Denmark).
A
separate story about that arrival shall be sent later today.
Obrigado
is the third American rep., joining Resolve and the mare Hannelore Hanover.
Canada’s Flanagan Memory rounds out the world-class field of 10.
