Icommandmyspirit (Brian Sears, $12.20) rallied from second-over Friday night, winning Yonkers Raceway’s $35,000 featured Filly and Mare Open Pace.
Sitting chilly from post position No. 6, Icommandmyspirit saw UF Dragons Queen (Mark MacDonald) work around polester Palm Patrol (Dan Dube). After a :28.2 opening quarter-mile and :58-second intermission, Camille (George Brennan), as the 7-5 choice, moved from fourth.
That was all the incentive Icommandmyspirit needed, as she tagged that one's rear going to the 1:27 three-quarters. UF Dragons Queen owned a tenuous lead into the lane, but was about to give up the ghost. Palm Patrol ducked inside, but “Icommand” was both wider and faster. The latter whipped the former (a bridesmaid in five of her six races this season) by a neck in a brisk 1:56.1.
Camille held the bottom of the ticket, with Jonsie Jones (Tyler Buter) and Rockaround Sue (Jason Bartlett) rounded out the payees.
For third choice Icommandmyspirit, a five-year-old homebred daughter of Western Ideal trained by Chris Ryder for owner/breeder Cheryl Costello, it was her third win in six seasonal starts. The exacta paid $47.40, with the triple returning $160.
(Yonkers Raceway)