BY
FRANK DRUCKER, Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS, NY, Monday, July 10, 2017—Yonkers
Raceway’s $110,500 final of the Lawrence B. Sheppard Pace for 2-year-old
colts and geldings goes Saturday night (July 15th), with an annual
six-figure look at the stars of tomorrow.
The Sheppard is carded as the sixth race
(approximate post time 9 PM) of the dozen-race dossier, with the usual first
post of 7:10 PM.
The open draw came out in favor of
Springsteen (Jason Bartlett, post 1), a solid second in last week’s fastest (of
three) $25,000 elimination races. Chris Ryder owns, trains (and last week
drove) the son of Rock N Roll Heaven, an $18,000 Lexington purchase.
The open draw did not come out in favor of
Ottawa import Kwik Talkin’ (Jordan Stratton, post 7), who defeated Springsteen
by a length a week ago in that zippy 1:54.4 elim. The Well Said colt, trained
by Rob Harmon for Canadian co-owners Robert
Robinson, Jacqueline Dinelle and Scott & Lisa Henry, is 3-for-3 after that
life-best work here last Saturday night.
Trump Nation
(Eric Goodell, post 2) and Persist Blue Chip (George Brennan, post 8) won last
week’s other elims in maiden-breaking miles of 1:57.1 and 1:58.3, respectively,
both from off the pace.
The remainder of the finale field includes Damion Diesel Hahn
(Ray Schnittker, post 3), Phat Blue Chip (Bartlett also listed, post 4), Real
Rayenbow (Bartlett listed again, post 5) and Hora Star (Brennan also listed,
post 6)
Program
changes for the Sheppard, named for the founder of Hanover Shoe Farms, shall be
made Tuesday night (July 11th).
The evening before the Sheppard (that
would be Friday, July 14th), the Raceway hosts the $170,499
New York Sire Stakes Art Watson Pace for 3-year-old fillies.
