George Brennan has picked up the mount aboard Doctor Butch for Yonkers Raceway's $275,000 final of the Art Rooney Pace this Saturday night. The duo have been installed as the 3-1 morning line favourite for the dash. "If he races the way he’s capable, I think he’s the best in there,” Brennan has said.
Doctor Butch has drawn Post 5 in the field of seven.
Brennan will be taking a seat behind the Linda Toscano-trained and Ken Jacobs-owned 'Butch' for the first time on Saturday. The son of Art Major was a season-starting third in last week's first elimination, as he cut the mile with driver Tim Tetrick before fading to third, beaten two lengths, in the lane. Butch, off an eight-win, $344,000 freshman campaign, was the lone $30,000 supplemental entrant into the 23rd edition of the Rooney.
“I’ve seen this colt race enough to know how good he is,” Brennan told the Yonkers Raceway publicity department. “He wasn’t at his best last week, but I’m going to chalk that up to being his first start. If he races the way he’s capable, I think he’s the best in there.”
Brennan will also drive pole-sitting Mattwestern in Saturday's companion event, the $117,060 Lismore Pace for three-year-old fillies. The locally-debuting daughter of Western Terror, co-owned (as Burke Racing) by trainer Ron Burke and Weaver Bruscemi, has won six of her nine seasonal starts, operating in Pennsylvania.
“I don’t know anything about her at all,” Brennan said. “I didn’t even know I was down to drive until the (overnight) sheet came out. I looked at her lines and see has a good record. I can’t complain about the draw, and (Burke) always sends them here ready.”
The Lismore has been carded as Race 7 (approximate post 9:30 p.m.), while the Rooney has been programmed as the ninth race (10:10 p.m.). First post for the 13-race card is 7:10 p.m.
The fields, with drivers and morning-line odds, are as follows: Rooney --- 1-Sunfire Blue Chip (Dan Dube, 5-1), 2-Source Of Pride (Dave Miller, 5-1), 3-Mach It So (Brett Miller, 6-1), 4-Good Day Mate (Jason Bartlett, 6-1), 5-Doctor Butch (George Brennan, 3-1), 6-Sir Carys Z Tam (Pat Lachance, 5-1), 7-Lonewolf Currier (Brian Sears, 4-1), 8-Bet the Moon (Eric Goodell, 10-1).
Please note that Sunfire Blue Chip and Source of Pride are coupled when it comes to wagering).
In the Lismore...1-Mattwestern (Brennan, 3-1), 2-JK Black Beauty (Sears, 8-1), 3-Freetime (Jordan Stratton, 4), 4-Aria J (Brett Miller, 10-1), 5-Handsoffmycupcake (Dube, 4-1), 6-Offintothesunset (Brent Holland, 5-1), 7-Live Entertainment (Dave Miller, 5-1), 8-Give Me An Amen (Bartlett, 10-1).
Please note that JK Black Beauty, Aria J, Offintothesunset and Give Me An Amen, all trained by Toscano, race uncoupled due to separate ownership, while Freetime and Handsoffmycupcake are coupled due to common co-owner/trainer (Scott DiDomenico).
(With files from Yonkers)