Favourite Legal Litigator (Cat Manzi) won the early Saturday night scrum for command, then just rolled away, winning Yonkers Raceway's $32,000 Open Handicap Pace
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Leaving from post position No. 2, he was in play early, as was pole-sitting Digital Z Tam (Pat Lachance) and Fox Valley Tribal (Greg Grismore).
Legal Litigator found the front after a brutal :26.1 opening quarter-mile, getting around Digital Z Tam and parking Fox Valley Tribal for his troubles.
The leader kept on going at a :54.4 intermission and 1:23.3 three-quarters, taking a length-and-a-quarter lead into the lane.
Legal Litigator then widened to three lengths at the wire, which he found in 1:53. Digital Z Tam saved second, with Southwind Tabor (Ryan Anderson) closing from last of the seven to grab third. Runover Feeling (Peter Wrenn) and Next Adventure (Jason Bartlett) completed the cashers.
For Legal Litigator, a five-year-old Camluck gelding owned by Bob Hamather and trained by Casie Coleman, he returned $6.40 for his first win in a pair of seasonal starts. The exacta paid $24.20, with the triple returning $337.50.
(Yonkers Raceway)