Opens To Past Horses Of The Year

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Season-debuting Bee A Magician (Brian Sears, $9.20) and Michaels Power (Dan Dube, $4.20) both went down the road Saturday night, winning Yonkers Raceway’s co-featured $42,000 Open Handicaps.

Bee A Magician, 2013’s Horse of the Year in both Canada and the U.S., showed no signs of a five-month hiatus and a pair of mundane qualifiers in the weekly trotting feature. In play from penultimate post position No. 6, she worked around Luminosity (George Brennan), then held sway through weight stations of :27.4, :57.1, 1:26.3 and 1:54.4. That effort established a new track record for aged trotting mares.

Luminosity chased around the oval, but was beaten a head. It was more than lengths back to Tweet Me (Tyler Buter) in third, with Lorenzo Dream (Jason Bartlett) and Modest Prince (Steve Smith) completing the cashers. Not Afraid (Dube), first-up as the 7-5 favourite, was poor and backpedaled to last.

For third choice Bee A Magician, a five-year-old daughter of Kadabra trained by Nifty Norman for co-owners Melvin Hartman, Herb Liverman and David McDuffee, it was her 32nd win in 48 career starts ($2,771,151). The exacta paid $36.50, with the triple returning $206.50.

The week’s featured pace saw 11-10 choice Michaels Power, from post No. 5, move past One Through Ten (Bartlett), then finish it off (:27.3, :56.3, 1:24.4, 1:52.1).

Second, beaten two and a half lengths, was a buried-alive The Real One (Pat Lachance), who skimmed the cones. One Though Ten, Duel In The Sun (Mark MacDonald) and Big N Bad (Sears) settled for the remainder.

For Michaels Power, a six-year-old homebred Camluck gelding owned by Jeff Snyder and trained by Mark Silva, it was his fifth win in 12 ’15 tries. Canada's 2012 Horse of the Year now has 31 career wins in 71 starts and $1,820,595 in purse earnings. The exacta (two wagering favourites) paid $9.50, with the triple returning $66.50.

(With files from Yonkers Raceway)

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