Many a bulb on Yonkers Raceway's tote board was pressed into holiday service Monday night, with the $18,000, fifth-race pace producing several season-high payoffs
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Early fractions of :27.3; 55.4 and 1:23.4 led to the front end falling down. The bombardiers were waiting to pick off the panting, with 77-1 Taylorlane Cruiser (Stephane Bouchard) - fifth turning for home - defeating 99-1 Upscale Hanover (Jordan Stratton) - seventh turning for home - by a nose. The mile-and-one-sixteenth went in 2:00.3. Digital Z Tam (Pat Lachance) salvaged third as the 13-10 favourite.
Taylorlane Cruiser's $157.50 win mutuel was the largest locally of the season, as were the $1,755 exacta and $11,938 triple. The pro-rated (for $2) $121,252 superfecta ($6,062.60 for a 10-cent ticket) was completed with Whogoesfirst (Yannick Gingras). For the record, the numbers were 2-8-3-4.
Ironically, the previous high win price of 2011 was the $143 of Rucker Place, who was in this race and finished sixth.
Yonkers' previous high exacta was $1,262, occurring Sept. 30, while the previous high triple payoff - $9,761 - took place in mid-August. The largest superfecta of the season - a $2 pro-rated price of $127,463 ($6,371.15 for a 10-cent ticket) happened in late July.
(Yonkers Raceway)