BY
FRANK DRUCKER, Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS, NY,
Saturday, February 16, 2019—George Brennan was the man of the hour Saturday
night (Feb. 16th), taking both halves of Yonkers Raceway’s $44,000
co-featured Open Handicaps.
It was a
second-up-to-first-home Don Domingo N ($5.80) in the week’s adult pace. From
post position No. 5, he watched as just-over-even-money favorite Bettor’s Fire
N (Ron Cushing) lead through cheapy subsections of :28.2, 58.3 and 1:26.3.
Hitching a lift behind season-debuting Somewhere in L A
(Jason Bartlett), Don Domingo N—in the his first Open ‘Cap start—did get within
range. Bettor’s Fire N owned a length lead into the lane, but ‘Don’ ran him
down, in a manner of speaking
He picked off the leader, winning by a neck in 1:54.2.
Somewhere in L A was a credible third, with Our Zak Whitby A (Dan Dube) and a
‘19-starting Bit of a Legend N (Jordan Stratton) settling for the remainder.
For
second choice Don Domingo N, a 7-year-old Down Under American Ideal gelding
owned by William Hartt and trained by Lance Hudson, it was his fifth win in six
seasonal/U-S starts. The exacta paid $11, the triple returned $80 and the
superfecta paid $240.
The weekly trotting feature was not for the squeamish, reduced to a field of
five after Melady’s Monet came up ill and two of the starters came up breaking.
What resulted was a two-speed, two-favorite, soft-fractions number and DW’s NY
Yank (Brennan, $4.50) beating Smalltownthrowdown (Dube) by a
length-and-a-quarter (:29, :59.3.
1:27.4, 1:56.1), matching a season’s-best effort.
Fearless Man (Bartlett) and Lily’s Swan Pond (Joe Bongiorno) flipped positions
after the former was deemed to have interfered with the latter. Weslynn Dancer
(Matt Kakaley) brought up the quintet rear.
For
DW’s NY Yank, a 10-year-old Dilbert Hanover gelding co-owned (as Burke Racing)
by (trainer) Ron Burke and Weaver Bruscemi, it was his second win in four
seasonal starts. The exacta paid $13.60, with triple and superfecta wagering
cancelled due to short staffing.
