Caviart Luca (George Brennan, $6.90) bucked the ‘front-end-is-awful’ trend Saturday night (January 28) at Yonkers Raceway and captured the track’s $45,000 Open Handicap Pace for the second consecutive week.
In play from Post 3, Caviart Luca went right down the road (:27.3, :56.2, 1:24, 1:52.2) and held off a solid, season-debuting, first-over Long Live Rock (driven by Dan Dube) by neck. Lucan Hanover (Brent Holland) was a belated third, with Roland N Rock (Jordan Stratton) and Somewhere in LA (Matt Kakaley) also closing for the minors cheques.
P H Supercam (Jason Bartlett) bottomed out of the pocket as the 19-10 favourite and finished last among the octet.
For second choice Caviart Luca – a six-year-old Somebeachsonewhere gelding co-owned (as Burke Racing) by (trainer) Ron Burke, Weaver Bruscemi and Phil Collura – he’s won all three of his seasonal starts. The exacta paid $58 and the triple returned $804.
Saturday featured a cavalcade of closers, as only four of the 11 horses charted with the lead entering the lane did indeed close the sale. It also featured an ‘unhit’ Pick 5, so Sunday afternoon’s ‘gimmick wager’ will begin with a carryover of $2,436.39 (50-cent base wager, Sunday comprising Races 6 through 10).
Reminder that first post for Sunday’s ‘French’ matinee is 12:30 p.m.
(Yonkers Raceway)
