Yonkers Raceway’s all-trot Sunday (August 5) matinee this weekend will feature a $54,800 Open Handicap Trot and the beginning of the French-American Trotting Club Series.

Post time for the 10-race card will be at 12:30 p.m. and all of races — save for the seventh — will carry the ‘French’ theme, as in overflow fields that will compete at the mile-and-a-quarter distance.

The weekly trotting feature will kick off the program, and distaffer NF Happenstance (Jack Parker Jr., Post 5) boasts as solid a resume as any of her scheduled rivals. The eight-year-old SJs Caviar lass couldn’t hack a second move in her last outing, but otherwise has been a cash cow ($169,225) this season.

NF Happenstance, owned by James Moore and trained by Carol-Jamieson-Parker, has recorded eight wins and a half-dozen seconds in her 18 seasonal starts. She’s doing her damage by adroitly leaving the gate, thus won’t be hard to find early in the contest.

Newly-minted millionaire Dewycolorintheline (Mark MacDonald, Post 2) will return to the big table in search of a third consecutive win, while The Last Chapter (Brent Holland, Post 3) and Fashion Creditor (Andy Miller, Post 4) also whipped ‘lessers’ in their last tries.

Cash Me Out (Jim Marohn Jr., Post 1) is just 2-for-20 this season, but has thrown in six seconds and five thirds, while Mostinterestingman (Jordan Stratton, Post 6) was a two-move second in last weekend’s trotting feature.

Races 2 and 3 comprise the first of three preliminary rounds in the French-American Trotting Club Series, which is restricted to the French-breds that were vetted overseas and then purchased by ‘local’ interests. Of the 19 horses entered in the two races, 11 have made purse starts since arriving, with five having won at least once.

Each of the preliminary races (second round is August 19, third is August 26th) will offer a purse of $35,000. The $120,000 final is scheduled for Sunday, September 2.

Note this Sunday’s ‘New York, New York Double’ consists of Saratoga’s first race (post time 1 p.m.) and the third from Yonkers (post time 1:30 p.m.).

(Yonkers Raceway)