BY
FRANK DRUCKER, Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS, NY, Saturday, February 25,
2017—Saturday night offered any number of entrants for Yonkers Raceway’s
upcoming George Morton Levy Memorial Series (nominations close this Wednesday,
March 1—hint, hint), including favored Soto (Matt Kakaley, $4.50), winner of
the featured $50,000 Open Handicap Pace.
In play from post position No. 4, Soto
then gave up the baton to Somewhere in L A (Mark MacDonald) just before a moist
:26.4 opening quarter-mile. After a 56-second intermission and moving down the
backside, First Class Horse (Tyler Buter) took out of fourth, That one towed
Guantanamo Bay (Jason Bartlett) while moving into a :27.4 third quarter
(1:23.4).
Somewhere in L A owned a length-and-a-half
lead into the lane, was good, though not quite good enough. Soto dipped inside,
edging past by a neck in 1:52.1. Third was a best-of-the-rest Guantanamo Bay,
with Roland N Rock (Jordan Stratton) and Caviart Luca (George Brennan) rounding
out the payees.
For
Delaware-based Soto, a 5-year-old son of Rock N Roll Heaven trained by Eric Ell
for co-owners Kenneth Wood, William Dittmar Jr. and Stephen Iaquinta, it was
his fourth win in seven seasonal starts. The exacta paid $27.40, with the
triple returning $147.
