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.
