Taking the top early, Gokudo Hanover got the victory in the $44,000 Open Handicap Pace at Yonkers Raceway on Saturday, Nov. 17.
In play from assigned post-position five, Gokudo Hanover avoided an early three-hole and instead moved to the lead around Techtor Hanover heading to a :26.2, opening quarter. After a snappy :55.1 intermission, Mach It So made his second move, first over from third.
However, Gokudo Hanover was more than up to the task, pacing a 1:23 third quarter and owning a length-and-a-half lead into the lane. He then finished it off, whipping Techtor Hanover by a length in a season’s-best-matching 1:52. Theartofconfusion A was a rallying third, with Im Some Graduate and Mach It So settling for the minor moolah.
For third choice Gokudo Hanover, a six-year-old Cam’s Card Shark gelding co-owned (as Triple D Stables) by (trainer) Scott DiDomenico, James Craparotta and Par Berry Racing, it was his seventh win in 19 starts this season (sixth in last nine tries). Driven by Daniel Dube, he paid $13.80 to win. The exacta paid $94, the triple returned $418.50 and the superfecta paid $2,207.
The Raceway offers a Sunday, Nov. 18 matinee, with first-race post at noon.
(With files from Yonkers Raceway)