BY
FRANK DRUCKER, Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS, NY,
Thursday, March 28, 2019—The glasses are half-full for some and half-empty for
others…40 percent of the way in.
The third of five
preliminary rounds of Yonkers Raceway’s Blue Chip Matchmaker and George Morton
Levy Memorial Pacing Series go this weekend, with four ($40,000 each) and five
($50,000 each) divisions, respectively.
The lone 2-for-2
Matchmaker lass, Apple Bottom Jeans (Corey Callahan, post 1), landed in the
opening Matchmaker, carded as Friday night’s (March 29th) fourth
race. The 6-year-old daughter of Mr. Apples enters with four consecutive wins
as she tries for a 30th career win.
Feelin’ Red Hot
(George Brennan, post 5) took no prisoners a week ago, an opening-length win
after finishing second in her first series starts.
Friday second
Matchmaker event (sixth race) is led by Ideal Lifestyle (Brennan, post 2) and
Bettor Joy N (Tim Tetrick, post 6), each with a win and second in a pair of
Matchmaker rounds.
The same
win-and-a-second resume belongs to Don’t Think Twice A (Jason Bartlett, post 3)
in the third division (seventh race), where she meets up with Seaswift Joy N
(Jim Marohn Jr., post 5). The latter owns a win and three-move third in her two
Matchmaker tries.
Defending
Matchmaker champ Shartin N (Tetrick, post 3) looms a short price in the
eighth-race final division. After an opening-leg win, the career $1.1 million
winner was a tough-trip fourth from an eight-hole a week ago.
Saturday evening’s
(March 30th) quintet of Levy legions goes as races 4,5,8,9 and 11.
Rodeo Rock (Andrew
McCarthy, post 1), a series two-fer, won the draw in the second grouping, He
shares the points lead with Ideal Jimmy (Brent Holland, post 7), who
landed into the final foray.
The former, a
6-year-old Rock N Roll Heaven gelding, has done his damage from off the pace in
both starts, last week prevailing after an elongated, first-up route. Rodeo
Rock has won all three of his seasonal starts for owner Royal Wire Products and
trainer Robert Cleary.
By contract,
‘Jimmy,’ a 6-year-old homebred (D R Van Witzenberg) 6-year-old Western Ideal
gelding trained by Erv Miller, has gone down-the-road in both of his series
tries. He’s won half of his 10 ’19 starts, including four of his last five
efforts.
Other single-week
winners include…
---Endeavor
(Tetrick, post 4), The Wall (Joe Bongiorno, post 5) and The Downtown Bus (Scott
Zeron, post 7) in Saturday’s first division,
---Western Fame
(Dan Dube, post 5) and Somewhere in L A (Bartlett, post 8) in the second
division,
--JJ Flynn
(Tetrick, post 1) in the third division,
--Anythingforlove
A (Bongiorno, post 1) and More the Better N (Zeron, post 2) in the fourth
division.
