BY
FRANK DRUCKER, Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS, NY, Sunday, July 30, 2017—He’s
obviously slowing down. Favored Homicide Hunter (Brian Sears, $5.50), after
waltzing through last week’s mile-and-a-quarter in 2:24.3, needed a full fifth
of a second more this time around.
Other than that alarming loss of alacrity,
not much changed for the people’s preference Sunday afternoon (July 30th)
en route to winning Yonkers Raceway’s $68,000 Open Handicap Trot.
From an assigned eight-hole in the field
of 11 (scheduled ‘12-holer’ Springbank Sam N came up lame and was a44 pre-race
day scratch), Homicide Hunter’s job was a bit easier at the outset. Luminosity
(George Brennan) and Centurion ATM (Dan Dube) both mamboed their way out of
contention.
Lone lass Celebrity Eventsy (Shristian
Lind) made the first lead, yielding to Rubber Duck (Joe Bongiorno). The one
gave up the baton to Homicide Hunter after a :28.4 opening quarter-mile.
As was the case a week ago, no ensuing issues at all (:58, 1:27.4, mile in
1:56.1) for the eventual winner.
Homicide Hunter owned a length-and-a-half
lead into the lane before whipping Rubber Duck by 2¾ lengths.
Fashion Creditor (Eric Goodell), Taco
Tuesday (Jordan Stratton) and Smalltownthrowdown (Jason Bartlett) settled for
the minors.
For Homicide
Hunter, a 5-year-old Mr. Cantab gelding owned by Crawford Farms Racing and
trained by Chris Oakes, it was his fifth win in eight seasonal starts. The
exacta (two wagering choices) paid $22, with the triple returning $175.50.
Sunday’s
installment of the ‘New York, New York Double’ offered a winning combination of
4-Dunk a Din (Saratoga’s 3rd race) and 2-Take My Picture (Yonkers’
10th race) paid $10.20 for every correct $1 wager. Total pool was
$3,725.
Note the
Raceway’s post time next Sunday (Aug. 6th) is 12:30 PM.
