She entered the preliminaries of Yonkers Raceway's Blue Chip Matchmaker Series with a lot of questions. She now enters the final with a lot of supporters.
That's what happened to See You At Peelers after the star lass won all four of her preliminary legs of the series. Prior to this Saturday night's $297,000 final, she also won the post position draw, landing the rail for lucrative tilt, which has been carded as Race 7 (approximate post time 9:20 p.m.).
The See You At Peelers saga is well known.
The daughter of New York sire Bettor's Delight won 22 straight races to start her career. The four-year-old had earned national notice with her precocious perfection, which including beating the boys at Yonkers in last season's $307,734 Art Rooney Pace.
However, three consecutive losses to end her three-year-old season, and persistent heart issues, left her future very much up in the air.
"I didn't know if she'd make it back," trainer Jimmy Takter said. "We had her on medication, but that didn't help. She needed about 60 days of total rest, and then we started with her again.
"We had aimed for this series," Takter said. "She loves racing here (nine-for-nine at Yonkers lifetime), but this is a tough place to start a season. It's five weeks of hard racing (though 'Peelers' skipped the fourth leg), then the final.
"She qualified three times at the Meadowlands, and even then, I wasn't sure, Even after she won the first week, I didn't know. It probably wasn't until the second week (down-the-road from Post 7 in 1:52.2) that I felt she was back.
"She's acting like her old self, though we're always keeping an eye on her, making sure she's hydrated," Takter said.
To view the draw and the morning-line odds for the $297,000 final of the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series, click here.
(With files from Yonkers)