San Domino A and driver Jason Bartlett escaped unscathed Saturday night, winning Yonkers Raceway’s $42,000 Open Pace.
It was a strangely-contested contested, with 3-5 choice Macs Jackpot (Brent Holland)—from post position No. 2—in no hurry early.
He was set to get away fourth until one leaver, Benhope Rulz N (Shaun Valle) broke, wiping out another leaver, Imarocnrollegend N (George Brennan).
Macs Jackpot then defaulted into a pocket behind pole longshot Highland Tartan (Dan Dube) before a :26.1 opening quarter mile. Continuingly content to sit, Macs Jackpot saw Highland Tartan find a :55.1 intermission.
San Domino A, away third from post No. 3, then moved to engage Highland Tartan. As the former was overhauling the latter before a 1:22.4 three-quarters, Macs Jackpot seemed to want to extricate himself from the cones. With The Real One (Pat Lachance) to his outside, Macs Jackpot couldn’t go anywhere, eventually dropping back noticeably.
Meanwhile, San Domino A opened to two lengths off the final turn, disposing of The Real One by a length in 1:50.4. Highland Tartan held third, with Theartofconfusion A (Austin Siegelman) and Havefaithinme N (Eric Goodell) settling for the minors.
Four fourth choice San Domino A, a six-year-old Somebeachsomewhere gelding trained by Andrew Harris for co-owners Joe P Racing and Oldford Racing, it was his fifth win in 14 seasonal starts. He paid $17.40 to win.
A single, solitary ticket with the magic sequence—3/6/3/6/7—took down the entire Pick 5 pool, good for $23,905.75 for that base 50-cent wager.
With nearly $5,300 unclaimed from Friday night’s Pick 5 wager, the Raceway’s $15,000 guarantee was easily vaulted over with $24,808 of new investors.
The winning quintet of #3 Betting Exchange ($34), #6 Military Master A ($10), #3 Don Domingo N ($3.90), #6 Prairie Panther ($7.80) and #7 Mach It So ($39.80) led to the single-ticket windfall.
Yonkers’ Pick 5 begins with either the sixth or seventh race during every program, offering a $10,000 guaranteed pool each Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. However, larger ‘instant guarantees’ have happened quite frequently, as evidenced by Saturday evening.
(Yonkers)