If Mackenzie gets a chance to defend her title in the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series final April 21, no one will be able to say she didn’t earn it. A streak of outside post positions and an unplanned absence from the fourth leg of the series for open pacing mares means Mackenzie is ranked eighth by points heading into the last preliminary round. Although she drew Post 7 again this week, trainer Pete Tritton is keeping a positive attitude.
“My first reaction was, ‘well, if she gets into [the final], that’s one more chance she’s got to draw [well],’ so I always try to look on the bright side,” he said. “It’s a great series and you’ve got to have luck and ability. We knew that when we went in.”
After finishing second to Lady Shadow in her lone qualifier March 9, Mackenzie started the 2018 season by finishing last in the opening leg of the Matchmaker from post seven. She overcame the same post in Leg 2, as she circled the field to score a 1:53.1 victory on March 23. In her most recent effort (on March 30), Mackenzie started from Post 6 and sustained a first-over bid from more than eight lengths off the tempo to wear down Newborn Sassy by a measured half-length in 1:54.1 with regular driver Jordan Stratton in the sulky.
“I always thought she was a good mare, but she was a bit rank early and Jordan really looked after her when we raced her last year,” Tritton said. “I think she’s a lot stronger this year, a lot more versatile. I’m pretty impressed with her. She is staked to all the big races all over America, so I’ve got a lot of confidence in her. She’s very strong.”
Outside draws aren’t the only obstacle Mackenzie will have to overcome to make it back to the final of the Matchmaker. A scare in the barn last week caused the daughter of Rock N Roll Heaven to miss a chance to race in the fourth leg of the series. Tritton has trained her since the incident and feels she is ready for this week’s race.
“She just got a little bit of a bump on her tendon, which has been looked at and it’s alright. I think she just must have whacked it in the stall or out in the field. Hopefully that won’t come back to haunt her at all,” Tritton explained. “I didn’t plan to take the week off because she didn’t get any points the first time. You’ve got to deal with the cards you’ve got and she drew [badly], so we just hope that she can overcome it with her ability and she has no more problems.”
Mackenzie is the 5-2 morning line favourite for the first of three $40,000 Matchmaker divisions Friday night (April 13). Motu Moonbeam, who is currently third in the standings, will start from the rail, while series leader Lakeisha Hall drew Post 3. The seventh-ranked Lady Shadow will start from Post 4 and will also look to secure her spot in the final.
“She’ll be fine for Friday night, she’s just probably going to have to do a little work and have a hard run to get it done because it looks like there’s a lot of speed inside her, and she’s going to have to come from the back again, which does make it hard,” Tritton said. “I’ll leave it to Jordan, who’s done a good job from the bad draws to get it done the last two weeks, so I’m hoping that everything will work out.
“I still don’t think she’s at her top. I think if we can get her through this week, we’ll have her right at the top for the following week,” Tritton continued. “She’s the whole package. She’s very strong, she keeps going, but she does have tremendous speed. Jordan tries to look after her and not really ask her for top speed, but when she has to, she can really go fast.”
Tritton will also try to qualify Sell A Bit for the Matchmaker final Friday night. Ranked 15th in the standings and in need of a victory to have a chance at making the main event, the eight-year-old daughter of Julius Caesar will start from the rail in Division 2. The 27-time career winner and $746,506-earner has been assessed at odds of 7-2 on the morning line after having posted a wire-to-wire win in Leg 1 and consecutive fourth-place finishes in legs two and three.
“I was a little bit disappointed last time. She got a good trip and just battled to the line. Her other runs have been good, but she’s had a little bit of an issue in one foot,” Tritton explained. “I trained her the other day and I thought she worked better than she ever did since I’ve had her, so I’m quietly confident that she’ll be right there on Friday night and be a contender to get back into the final. If not, the consolation, but she’s really good at the moment and I think that week off has done her a world of good.”
While Mackenzie and Sell A Bit are under pressure to make the Matchmaker final, Tritton won’t feel the same stress with Bit Of A Legend in the final preliminary leg of the George Morton Levy Series Saturday night (April 14). After posting an impressive 1:53.3 win in Week One and a 1:53.2 win last week, the 2016 series champion is currently ranked second by points.
“I’m definitely sure he’s better than he was at this time last year. I think if he draws [reasonably] and luck goes his way, he’ll be really, really hard to beat,” Tritton said. “I’m sure there’s no better horse in it and you’ve just got to have luck in the draws and luck in running, but I’m fairly confident with him if he draws [well] because he’s very versatile. He can sit and sprint, he can do a lot of work, he’s got good gate speed.
“I’m confident that the horse is 100 per cent right and right on his game,” he continued. “Now we’ve got to get the other things to fit into place, but that’s racing. It’s exciting to be involved and to think you’re a chance. Hopefully it works out. It doesn’t always, like last year, but it’s good to be a chance.”
Tritton is happy to have Bit Of A Legend back in the barn this year. Although retirement to stallion duty was floated for the $1.9 million earning son of Bettors Delight at the end of the 2017 racing season, Tritton and the Vonknoblauch family, who owns Bit Of A Legend, Mackenzie, and Sell A Bit, consider themselves racers first and are happy to keep their star on the track for as long as he continues to enjoy his work.
“I think he’d be a nice stud horse, particularly because he’s so good-gaited and he’s got no problems, he wears no boots. I think he’d be a good sire for New York to race on the smaller tracks in the stakes races,” Tritton said. “But he keeps turning up and winning five or six-hundred-thousand every year and he doesn’t seem to have any lameness issues and he enjoys his work.
“I keep thinking every year we’ll probably retire him, but it’s a tough business being a stallion, too. He’ll keep racing while I think he’s going as good as he is now. We’re here to race horses, we’re not really breeders. Same with Mackenzie. We got offered a lot of money for Mackenzie as a broodmare back in New Zealand last year after she won the Matchmaker, but as I say, we race them.”
Bit Of A Legend, who will start from Post 7, has been gauged as a 7-2 chance on the morning line for the third and final Levy preliminary Saturday night. Series leader Somewhere In L A will start to his immediate inside, while the fourth-ranked Dr J Hanover drew Post 5.
For Tritton, the prospects of Mackenzie and Bit Of A Legend each earning a chance to win their second titles in Yonkers’ signature races for older pacers is humbling. Achieving these feats at his home track is made better by his partnership with Stratton.
“It’s very satisfying and it’s helped Jordan as well, which is great because he’s a great guy and a great driver. These races are not easy. A lot goes into it. It’s been very satisfying, and we’ll take it as it comes and hopefully we can get a good result again this year,” Tritton said.
“Before I lived up here, I used to train in Delaware and I’d ship them up. I got a few into the finals over the years, I won a few preliminaries of the Levy, but the final was always beyond me,” he continued. “It does mean a lot because the main reason I moved up here was to race at Yonkers and these are the two signature races with my horses, so it’s very satisfying.”
First post time Friday and Saturday night at Yonkers is 6:50 p.m.
(SOANY)