BY
FRANK DRUCKER, Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS, NY, Thursday, February 1,
2018—Foiled Again’s second attempt at his 100th career win came up a
nose and a head short Thursday night (Feb. 1st), cutting the mile
and just missing in a Yonkers Raceway blanket photo.
Leaving from post position No. 5 beneath a
light drizzle in the $20,000, eighth-race pace, the sport’s richest-ever equine
needed a fair amount of driver Yannick Gingras’ urging early.
The 6-5 favorite did get over pole-sitting
second choice Lord of Misrule (George Brennan), making the lead just before a
:27.3 opening quarter-mile. It was a rated 58-second intermission over a ‘good’
oval when Machtu N (Brent Holland) tried it first-up from fourth.
That interloper found himself in a
statistical dead-heat with Foiled Again in and out of a 1:26.1 three-quarters,
with Foiled Again clinging to a short schnoz entering the lane.
Gingras was all over Foiled Again in the
lane, and it appeared that the horse who made his reputation fighting off all
comers could do it again.
The field closed ranks into a slow final
quarter, with Foiled Again tiring just enough to afford Lord of Misrule a
non-passing lane passing lane. That one barely edged a seam-splitting, 43-1
outsider Macintosh N (Jordan Stratton) by a desperate nose in 1:56.4.
Foiled Again wound up third, beaten a head
as the five payees were separated by three-quarters of a length. The entire
octet was head-to-toe two lengths apart.
“I came here to win with him,” Gingras
said. “I wanted to leave. I wasn’t going to race him from third–over.”
Thursday night’s $2,400 payday in Foiled
Again’s 306th lifetime purse try increased the 14-year-old gelding’s
retirement account to $7,570,878.
The evening’s Pick 5 began with a
carryover of $4,787.19 and attracted $20,614 of new coin…easily leapfrogging
the $15,000 guarantee. After takeout, that left an approximate pool of $20,247.
The winning combination of 1/3/1/6/1
returned $232 for every correct half-a-buck wager
