Millionairess Yellow Diamond and Jkmusicofthenite won Saturday night's pair of $20,000 eliminations for Yonkers Raceway's Lady Maud Pace. This event for three-year-old fillies saw ladies train both victresses
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In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that no one was actually eliminated in the first elim. The scheduled field of five was reduced by one when odds-on early choice Shacked Up--a $30,000 supplemental entrant--came up ill (too much candy?). That moved understudy Kiss Me Kate (John Campbell) into the soggy footlights as the 4-5 favourite.
"Kate" sat second behind Up Front Kellie Jo (George Brennan) through fractions of :28.1, :58.1 and 1:27.2. Jkmusicofthenite (Yannick Gingras, four winners Saturday night) pulled from third, engaging the leader in and out of the final turn. She grabbed the baton, then held a passing-lane Kiss Me Kate at bay by a length-and-a-half in 1:55.2.
Personal Ad (Dan Dube) misbehaved early and was never a factor.
For Jkmusicofthenite, a homebred daughter of Western Ideal trained by Linda Toscano for 3 Brothers Stables, she returned $8.30 (third choice) for her second win in 16 seasonal starts. The exacta paid $20.40.
Yellow Diamond (Jeff Gregory), at 35 cents on the dollar, controlled the second elimination after taking over from Perfectionist (Dube). The Breeders Crown winner had her way with divisions of :28.1, :57.3, 1:25.4 and 1:53.2. Shanghai Lil (Mike Lachance), as the second choice, moved from third but never threatened.
Yellow Diamond--like her scratched stablemate a $30,000 buy-in--prevailed by a measured three-quarters-of-a-length. Perfectionist was third and Pumptuous (Gingras) fourth.
Unfortunately, in the game of "Duck, Duck, Goose," there was no seat at the final table for Thats the Plan (Brennan), who was the lone lass settling for lovely parting gifts.
For Yellow Diamond, a homebred Western Terror miss owned by Bulletproof Enterprises and trained by Tracy Brainard, she returned $2.70 for her 12th win (sixth consecutive) in 19 seasonal starts. The exacta paid $4.20.
Open draws for next Saturday night's two stakes finals--the $364,430 Lady Maud and the $542,060 one-dash-for-the-cash Messenger Stakes--takes place Tuesday afternoon.
The alphabetical roster for the Messenger includes Clear Vision, Doubleshotascotch, Fireintheshark, Hail Storm, Hypnotic Blue Chip, Breeders Crown/Art Rooney winner If I Can Dream and Straight Shooting.
Saturday night's $40,000 Open Handicap Pace was won by King Cat Anvil N (Jordan Stratton, $13) in 1:53.4.
(Yonkers Raceway)