Millionaire-in-waiting Smalltownthrowdown parlayed a pocket ride Saturday night (Jan. 25) into a victory in Yonkers Raceway’s $40,000 Open Handicap Trot.

In the game from assigned post 3, Smalltownthrowdown sat behind Nows The Moment as the latter made the lead before a :27.4 opening quarter and after a nasty break by Yes.

It was between a :58.1 intermission and 1:27 three-quarters when 7-10 favourite Meladys Monet commenced and concluded a weak first-over bid. With the fave done, Nows The Moment opened a pair of lengths in and out of the final turn. However, he couldn’t close the sale as Smalltownthrowdown edged out and by.

The final margin was one-and-a-quarter lengths in a season’s-best 1:56, with Swansea closing for third. Meladys Monet and Lean Hanover settled for the minors.

For fifth-choice Smalltownthrowdown, a seven-year-old statebred Cash Hall gelding co-owned (as Allard Racing) by (trainer) Rene Allard, Yves Sarazin, VIP Internet Stable and Bruce Soulsby, it was his second win in three starts this season (career 28-for-85, $998,223). Dan Dube drove the $28.20 winner. The exacta paid $142.50, the triple returned $947 and the superfecta paid $3,015.

Allard didn’t do much wrong, winning with four of his six Saturday starters.

The week’s marquee pace, a $35,000 Preferred Handicap Pace, was won by a down-the-road (:27.3, :57.3, 1:25.2, 1:53.2) Tookadiveoffdipper (Jordan Stratton, $16).

(Yonkers Raceway)