Favourite Lucky Man, driven by Brian Sears, justified his Saturday night support, winning Yonkers Raceway's $38,000 Open Pace
.
Away third early from post position No. 2, Lucky Man moved around pole-sitting Rojettes Best (Brent Holland). He grabbed the lead just after a :27.1 opening quarter-mile, then rated a :56.3 half. The soft fractions did nothing for the outer chasers, including a first-up Shooebees Place (George Brennan).
Lucky Man found three-quarters in 1:24.2, taking a length-and-a-half lead into the lane. He hit the mile marker in 1:52 with Rojettes Best his only threat. That one came up a half-length short though as Lucky Man negotiated the mile-and-one-sixteenth in 1:59.
B Js Bequia (Jason Bartlett), Foreign Officer (Jim Pantaleano) and Code Word (Yannick Gingras) rounded out the payees.
For Lucky Man, a six-year-old Camluck gelding owned by Thomas Hill and trained by Casie Coleman, he returned $4.10 for his fourth win in 23 seasonal starts. The exacta (two wagering favourites) paid $10.80, with the triple returning $36.
While the horses were slowing down in the first turn after the race, Rojettes Best and Foreign Officer appeared to collide with both Holland--who was unseated--and Pantaleano getting injured. Both were taken to a local hospital and no other information is available at this time. Rojettes Best was down on the track for several minutes, but did get up.
(Yonkers Raceway)