BY FRANK DRUCKER,
Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS,
NY, Sunday, November 20, 2016—Not Afraid (Dan Dube, $38.20) led the longshot
legion Sunday morning, winning Yonkers Raceway’s mile-and-a-quarter, $56,000
Open Handicap Trot.
Away
alertly from post position No. 3 for his 11:30 AM local time road test, Not
Afraid then saw an interesting floor show develop. Centurion ATM (Steve Smith)
made the next lead before yielding to a wide-early Hemi Seelster (Jason
Bartlett).
That
one found front before a :28.2 opening quarter-mile.
Then
came 4-5 fave Bee a Magician (Brian Sears), even wider early and parked two
turns before grabbing the baton after a :56.4 half. An antsy ‘Hemi’ wanted to
reclaim his turf, but was rebuffed and eventually broke in a retreating pocket.
However,
the $4 million lass Bee a Magician had been sufficiently softened up before a
1:26,4 three-quarters, as Not Afraid moved with purpose from fourth. That one
went up and over and, after a 1:56.2 mile station, owned a 2½-length lead into
the lane.
Not
Afraid held off a charging, 73-1 Springbank Sam N (Jordan Stratton) by a head
in 2:25.4 for the added distance. Tweet Me (Pat Lachance) and her 149-1 self
rallied for third, with Centurion ATM and Dweycolorintheline (Mark MacDonald)
settling for the minors. Bee a Magician tired badly to finish eighth—beating
just a pair of misbehavers—her first non-payday since she was sixth in the 2015
Yonkers International Trot.
For fourth choice Not Afraid, a 7-year-old S J’s
Caviar gelding trained by Jimmy Takter for co-owners the missus Christina, John
Fielding and Goran Anderberg, it was his seventh win in 30 seasonal starts. The
exacta paid $494.50, with the triple (first two finishers and ALL) returning
$1,073.
As an aside, Sunday’s edition of the ‘New York,
New York Double’ was scratched after Aqueduct cancelled its card. The gimmick
is scheduled to return next Sunday, Nov. 27th, with Yonkers’ first post
at 11:10 AM.
