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Friday, May 3, 2019

NEW YORK SIRE STAKES SEASON BEGINS WITH TUESDAY'S $163,499 JOE GOLDSTEIN TROT


BY FRANK DRUCKER, Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway

YONKERS, NY, Friday, May 3, 2019—New York Sire Stakes season gets underway Tuesday night (May 7th), with Yonkers Raceway hosting the $163,499 Joe Goldstein Trot for 3-year-old fillies. 
With 17 lasses in to go, the event offers two six-horse fields--purses $54,833 each—and a five-horse event at $1,000 less.
Defending statebred champion Winndevie makes her seasonal debut in the final event, leaving from post position No. 5 in the seventh race. Trond Smedshammer trains and drives the daughter of Credit Winner for Purple Haze Stables.
As a frosh, Winndevie offered up six wins and a second in seven starts ($227,878), wrapped by a 1:58 mark taken here in September’s $225,000 final of the sire stakes.
Quincy Blue Chip (Jim Morrill Jr., post 3) socked away $181,962 at 2, doing so with four wins, three seconds and a third in eight tries.
After ending 2018 with a second-place finish in the finale of the statebreds, the Blue Chip Bloodstock homebred daughter of Chapter Seven began this season with a (Pocono) win and a second in two tries. 
Amal Hall (Andy Miller, post 6), herself a six-figure lass ($124,102) last season, also used Westchester for her life-best (1:58.4) effort. Julie Miller trains this season-debuting Credit Winner miss for her husband the chauffeur, GTY Stable and Dumain Haven Farm.
Tuesday night’s first-event quintet (second race) finds Hanna Dreamgirl (Brian Sears, post 3) and Stella Jane (Jason Bartlett, post 4) alongside one another, each coming off solid first seasons.
The former, a Chapter Seven miss owned by Ken Jacobs and trained by George Ducharme, won twice in 15 ’18 tries ($115,204).
The latter, a Crawford Farms homebred daughter of Crazed trained by John Butenschoen, was 3-for-14 a season ago, the highlight a win in the $236,060 final of the Kindergarten at the Meadowlands (life-best 1:54.4). She tries it this season sans the trotting hopples.
The evening’s second grouping (third race) is led by Conway Kellyanne (Charlie Norris, post 3), having earned $127,996 in her freshman (freshwoman?) season. After her statebred obligations, the Conway Hall miss finished second in a pair of Red Mile open stakes tries.
Total purses for the 2019 New York-bred program are estimated at $14 million. For more information, please visit www.nysirestakes.com.