Giddy Up Lucky rewrote the record book Saturday night, winning Yonkers Raceway's $43,000 Open Handicap Pace with driver Dan Dube in tow
.
Leaving from penultimate post position five as the 3-4 favourite, Giddy Up Lucky watched as George Morton Levy winner Real Nice (Jim Pantaleano) worked around pole-sitter Forensic Z Tam (Pat Lachance). It was Real Nice getting the lead before a :26.2 opening quarter, then finding a :55.2 half.
Giddy Up Lucky moved from fifth down the backside approaching the 1:22.4 three-quarters, gaining the advantage not long after. The margin, a half-length turning for home, widened through the lane.
Giddy Up Lucky found the mile marker in 1:50.2 - keep in mind the all-age, local flat-mile record is Silver Almahurst's 1:50.4, and that's lasted 18
seasons - before finishing the mile-and-one-sixteenth in 1:57.1. Clowns Smile (Eric Goodell) snapped Forensic Z Tam for second, beaten 3-1/2 lengths, with Macraider N (George Brennan) and Gallant Yankee (Jason Bartlett) grabbing the minor spoils. Real Nice faded to last among the happy half-dozen.
The record-setting performance, taken over a "good" surface, was a full second faster than the previous local standard, co-owned by two entities - Real Nice and Macraider N - Giddy Up Lucky dominated here.
For Giddy Up Lucky, a six-year-old Camluck gelding co-owned by Baron Racing and VIP Internet Stables and trained by Josh Green, he returned $3.50 for his third win in eight seasonal starts.
The winner, it should be noted, might have won both the finals of the Levy and Graduate had those finish lines been a total of about six steps further.
(Yonkers Raceway)