Joe Lee asserted the correctly named Its A Horse to lead early and fought all through to the finish to take a narrow victory in the $10,000 North American Amateur Drivers Association (NAADA) Trot on Thursday night (March 23) at Yonkers Raceway.
Starting from the pylon post, Its A Horse pushed through to protect position and lead to a :29.4 first quarter over Shoemaker Hanover (driven by John Calabrese) and Dark Pool (Tony Beltrami), who raced parked from third. Dark Pool ventured forward to apply intensifying pressure on Its A Horse through a 1:01.1 half and 1:30.3 three-quarters while Judge Ken (Matt Zuccarello) loosely followed cover second over.
Its A Horse cut the corner with a three-quarter-length lead that diminished through Dark Pool’s persistence and Shoemaker Hanover’s bid from the pocket. Yet the line came in time for Lee and Its A Horse kept a nose up on Dark Pool with Shoemaker Hanover settling for third and Natural Kemp (Scott Keppler) rallying for fourth. The winning time was 2:01.1.
Peter Pellegrino trains Its A Horse, a 10-year-old gelding by Full Count, for owner Barry Franklin.
NAADA action resumes Wednesday (March 29) when it visits a different venue for the first time this season with divisions at Monticello Raceway. First-race post time at Monticello is 12:10 p.m. (EDT).
(With files from NAADA)