Stop us if you’ve read this one before… Odds-on Newborn Sassy (Jordan Stratton, $2.60) did not play fair Friday night (May 18), winning Yonkers Raceway’s $44,000 Filly and Mare Open Handicap Pace in obnoxiously facile fashion.
This field, reduced to a half-dozen after a mid-pack defection (ill), found Newborn Sassy and Call Me Queen Be (Eric Goodell) hooking up early. The former, from what became outside post position No. 6, stepped around the latter well before a :27.4 opening quarter-mile, then waltzed through a :56.4 intermission.
Between the half and the (1:24.4) three-quarters, Mach It A Par (Jason Bartlett) tried it first-up from fourth. However, the leader’s 57-second middle portion figured to make everyone else’s life difficult.
Newborn Sassy owned a length lead into the lane, then widened to two and three-quarter lengths at the 1:52.3 finish.
Mach It A Par fought the good fight to wind up second, with Delightful Dragon (Mark MacDonald) third. Tequila Monday (Brian Sears) and Call Me Queen Be rounded out the payees, while Motu Moonbeam N (Brent Holland) settled for some lovely parting gifts.
For Newborn Sassy, a five-year-old daughter of Western Ideal co-owned by CC Racing & Jo Ann Looney-King and trained by Jim King Jr., the win was her fourth (consecutive) in 15 seasonal starts after starting ’18 0-for-11. The exacta paid $9.40, with the triple (three wagering choices in order) returning $29.80.
Yonkers’ Saturday (May 19) program offers eliminations (two) for the Art Rooney Pace and (one) the Lismore. The finalists go at it next Saturday (May 26) for $300,000 (Rooney) and $111,444 (Lismore).
Saturday’s 143rd Preakness Stakes shall be prominently simulcast throughout the Raceway. Mutuel windows open at 10 a.m., in advance of Pimlico’s first post at 10:30 a.m. Pimlico offers 14 races (final post 7:35 p.m.), with the Preakness going as the 12th race (post time 6:48 p.m.).
(With files from Yonkers Raceway)