Since taking over the training of his father’s Bamond Racing Stable, two years ago, Jeff Bamond, Jr. has reached the sport’s greatest heights.

His starters have won a host of Grand Circuit stakes across the country and have achieved overnight success at Yonkers Raceway. Last year, Bamond finished fourth in the Yonkers trainer standings with 98 victories and $2,118,162 in purses earned.

Despite his success, the 32-year-old maintains a humble attitude.

“I’ve been blessed. I have a good opportunity and I’m fortunate to make the most of it,” he said. “There’s not much I can say about it. I’ve been very blessed and not a lot of people have that opportunity.”

Three of Bamond’s biggest stars will be on display this weekend at Yonkers. Krispy Apple will start in Friday’s second leg of the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series while Mach It So and P H Supercam are set to race in Saturday’s George Morton Levy Series second leg.

Krispy Apple made her first start of the season March 10 when she finished seventh in the $50,000 Filly and Mare Open Handicap from post position eight. While she didn’t make an impression, Bamond felt the start was valuable.

“I think you always get something out of it. Unfortunately when you get fractions that let really good mares come home in 27 seconds, you’re not really going to go anywhere when you’re seven or eight lengths away. It can help you when you finally do draw inside,” he said.

Krispy Apple is nine-years-old, and last week began contesting the Matchmaker Series for the sixth consecutive year. She won the $75,000 consolation as a four-year-old in 2012 and has made the final every year since. While her work in the series has been strong, luck has worked against the earner of $1.86 million. In her four tries in the Matchmaker final, she’s started from posts eight, seven, five, and six.

“It’s about time she gets lucky at some point,” Bamond joked. “Maybe this will be her year. Some of these horses, the series takes a lot out of them. That’s the hardest part about the series. It’s so hard to make the final, but then when you get there, you have to make sure you have some horse left.”

Krispy Apple concluded her 2016 campaign December 16 and enjoyed a month long break from training. The easy-going daughter of Western Ideal-Apple Krisp trained back as willingly as ever ahead of her first start.

“There’s not much to her in a sense. She’s pretty low maintenance and does a good job of taking care of herself. You wouldn’t know she’s even there,” Bamond explained. “She jogs pretty much every day and trains once or twice a week. She’s pretty easy to bring back.”

Last week, Krispy Apple finished fifth behind Mach It A Par and Bedroomconfessions in the first leg of the Matchmaker. While she started from post seven and was 10-1/4 lengths behind at the quarter, Krispy Apple closed with a :27 final quarter to finish just 3-1/4 lengths back. She earned five points for her finish and another 25 for starting, bringing her point total to 30.

This week, Krispy Apple is set for a rematch with Bedroomconfessions and she finally drew a post position she can work with. She’ll start from post three as a 7-2 morning line while Bedroomconfessions is 9-5 from the pylons. Brett Miller will drive Krispy Apple for the second straight week.

“(Brett Miller) was willing to come over. He’s done a really good job in the last couple years with some stakes horses,” Bamond said of his choice of driver.

“Jason (Bartlett) had a real big drive in Mach It A Par; I knew that would be risky whether we would get him or not because that mare has been really good. I figured you might as well bring somebody in and maybe it will work out.

“Hopefully she can get away somewhere good. Whatever Brett wants do, whether he leaves. Either way, she should be a lot closer this week than before. Hopefully it works out in that regard.”

Bamond will send out Mach It So and P H Supercam in Saturday night’s second and third division of the Levy, respectively.

Mach It So is in his third year of Levy competition and like his stablemate, has bad luck at the draw of the final. The past three years, the $1.7 million-earning son of Mach Three has started from post seven twice. The other time, he drew post eight.

Mach It So made his first start of the season in last week’s series opener. He finished third beaten a neck while chasing the streaking Provocativeprince N and Rockin Ron.

“I thought he was good. There was definitely some sharp horses that finished first and second. They had raced a couple more times,” Bamond said of the competition. “I was happy with him. I though he finished up good.”

Although Mach It So had two qualifiers to prepare for his seasonal debut, Bamond says there’s no substitute for the real thing. He expects Mach It So to race even better this week.

“I think a lot of times you see horses qualify even three times and sometimes you’ll see horses go a really fast qualifier, like 1:50. In their first start, they still look like they need a start. I don’t think you can really duplicate a race whether you qualify once, twice, three times, or whatever it is,” he reasoned.

Mach It So is the 5-2 favourite in his Levy division and will employ the services of regular driver Tim Tetrick. From post four, he will start just to the outside of his main rivals, including last year’s champion Bit Of A Legend, Soto, winner of a Levy division last week, and Rockin Ron.

“He’s in with some good horses again. Obviously it’s a tough series. You’re always going to get one or two really good horses and the rest are competitive too,” Bamond said. “I think he can do anything Timmy wants. He can leave, he can come off the pace. That’s what I think it’s the best thing for him, he can make a game plan as he goes along there. He’s a little bit of a trip horse in the sense that I think Timmy will try to find a good trip for him. If you want to get a good trip, Tim’s a good man to get.”

While Krispy Apple and Mach It So represent his best chances, Bamond will also send out one of the stable’s veterans, 10-year-old P H Supercam, in the third Levy division Saturday night. The son of Million Dollar Cam is a 53-time winner from 213 starts. His victory in the 2014 Levy Series Final contributed to his $1.5 million bankroll.

“I think maybe age is catching up to him a little bit, but I felt like we owed it to him to put him in there just because I know he’s been so good in there,” Bamond said, alluding to P H Supercam’s recent form. The gelding is winless in nine starts this year, but looks to turn the tables this week with a favourable draw. Still, he’s a 15-1 outsider on the morning line.

“He didn’t have a good post last week. He’d been leaving out of there a couple weeks in a row. I wanted to give him another shot to come off the pace and see if he can regain what he does best, which is chase down some horses.”

Friday’s card at Yonkers features three divisions of the Blue Chip Matchmaker series while Saturday’s card features four Levy divisions. First post time is 7:10 p.m. each night.

(SOA of NY)