BY
FRANK DRUCKER, Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS, NY, Wednesday, August 23,
2017—The Empire’s plebe posse hits town Friday night (Aug. 25th),
with Yonkers Raceway hosting the $159,000 New York Sire Stakes Jim Meagher Pace
for 2-year-old colts and geldings.
Three meticulously carved-out, seven-horse
divisions—at $53,000 each—go as races 5,6 and 7 during the dozen-race card.
First post is the usual 7:10 PM, with the evening’s sire stakes honoring the
memory of the Raceway’s long-time corporate controller.
The opening event has one entrant—Paprike
Blue Chip (Corey Callahan, post 5)—with a sire stakes win, a 1:55 effort at
Saratoga. The Roll with Joe gelding, trained by John Butenschoen for co-owners
Harmony Oaks & Crawford Racing and VIP Internet Stable, has been around the
Westchester block before, finishing fourth in his elimination for last month’s
Lawrence B. Sheppard Pace.
Friday’s second grouping finds out of
anyone can take out the ‘Hitman’. Hitman Hill (Brett Miller, post 1) not only
won the draw, but invades off a wicked, life-best 1:50.4 NYSS win at Vernon.
The American Ideal gelding, co-owned by Tom Hill & North Fork Racing and trained
by Chris Oakes, has won both of his career tries.
Persist Blue Chip (George Brennan, post 4)
and Jersey Jim (Jim Devaux, post 7) also have sire stakes wins, at Monticello
and Saratoga, respectively. Devaux is making his first local appearance since
the NYSS season of 2012.
Springsteen (Chris Ryder, post 6), though
winless in four tries, opened some eye sockets with a pair of rousing seconds
in the elim and final of the Sheppard.
The final Meagher mélange includes
Jimtastic (Jordan Stratton, post 1), going after a third sire stakes win. The
one asterisk is a tiring (to fourth) effort in his latest try at Vernon. He
lost that race to one of Friday’s rivals, Mr. Profeta (Dan Dube, post 5),
another Sheppard refugee.
Jimtastic, an Art Major colt, is trained by
Andrew Harris for Ontario co-owners Brad Gray and Denise Guerrero. This ‘Mr.’,
meanwhile, is an Anatolia Farm homebred son of Roll with Joe trained by Rolland
Mallar.
Casual Cool (Jason Bartlett, post 2) tries
for a fourth NYSS win. The $165,000 (Harrisburg) son of American Ideal,
owned by Ken Jacobs and trained by Linda Toscano, threw down a life-best 1:52.2
at Vernon in his latest outing. He may not be aware of it, but he’s the
priciest of the three-division group, 20-large more than Hitman Hill.
