BY
FRANK DRUCKER, Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS, NY, Sunday, March 12, 2017—A
pocketed Red Hot Herbie (Tim Tetrick, $7.50) proved best Sunday afternoon,
winning Yonkers Raceway’s $50,000 Open Trot.
At the outset, Here Comes Herbie—from post position No. 3—found himself in
behind Springbank San N (Jordan Stratton) as that one led through early
intervals of :28.2 and :58.3. Lady’s Dude (George Brennan), as the 17-10
favorite, then moved from third.
That one engaged ‘Sam’ in and out of a
1:27.1 three-quarters, with B Yoyo (Joe Bongiorno) gapped a bit from
second-over. Springbank Sam N had the lead off the final turn for the third
consecutive start, and he failed to win for the third consecutive start.
He did however, send ‘Herbie’ into the
passing lane, where he whipped a rallying In Secret (Matt Kakaley) by a neck in
1:56.3. Lady’s Dude held third, with a ground-saving Hemi Seelster (Jason
Bartlett) and B Yoyo settling for the remainder. Springbank Sam N faded to
seventh among the octet.
The feature went as the opener of an
all-trot, 11-race card, seven of which carried the ‘French’ theme (overflow
fields and the mile-and-one-quarter distance)
For second
choice Red Hot Herbie, a 7-year-old Here Comes Herbie gelding co-owned (as
Allard Racing) by (trainer) Rene Allard, Bruce Soulsby and Edward Reppucci, it
was his fourth win in eight seasonal starts. The exacta paid $110.50, with the
triple returning $697.
This
installment of the ‘New York, New York Double’ resulted in a combination of
8-Two Term Max (Aqueduct’s 3rd race) and 10-Defi Normand (Yonkers’ 6th
race), which paid $82 for each correct $1 wager. Total pool was $5,736.
A reminder
there is also racing next Sunday (March 19th), with first post at
12:30 PM.
