Trainer Linda Toscano celebrated a stakes double on Saturday night at Yonkers Raceway with supplemental entry Doctor Butch winning the featured $275,000 Art Rooney and filly Jk Black Beauty prevailing in the companion $117,060 Lismore Pace.
While reigning New York Sires Stakes champion Doctor Butch was not originally scheduled to race in the Rooney, the sophomore colt took the change of plans in stride and went wire-to-wire to win with George Brennan aboard for Toscano and owner Kenneth Jacobs of Baldwinsville, New York.
Brennan sent the Art Major-Classical Yankee colt to the lead over Good Day Mate (Jason Bartlett) with the rest of the field strung out through a :27-second opening quarter. Doctor Butch proceeded to the half in :56 and three-quarters in 1:23.2 while Source Of Pride (David Miller) made the first over sacrifice. But Doctor Butch held a commanding lead into the stretch and held off the quick-closing Lonewolf Currier (Brian Sears) to win by half a length in 1:51.2. Sir Carys Z Tam (Pat Lachance) came on for third.
"We had a schedule all set for him and he was supposed to race June 18th up at Vernon and we had the 27th at Tioga, which is part of his Sires Stakes schedule," explained Toscano. "We try to get the Sire Stakes out of the way and get our points in the bank if we can [for the final] so we never made him eligible for the Rooney. When [the EHV-1 outbreak] happened up at Vernon and they shut the place down we had one all dressed with no place to go, so I kind of put a little bug in Ken's ear about possibly supplementing him and I didn't have to talk Ken into it too hard."
Doctor Butch, who finished third in his seasonal debut during the May 25 elimination round, paid $6.90 to win.
"I didn't think he was as good as he could be [last week]," said Toscano. "There was a couple of little issues and I had a virus going through my barn. At least we found out about it in the elimination race and we seem to be going back on track now."
"He raced really great," said Brennan. "That's the Doctor Butch everybody knows and he showed up tonight. Linda did a great job getting him on his toes tonight after last week's performance and also demonstrated a lot of adversity changing his schedule around like that with the closure at Vernon so kudos to Linda."
Doctor Butch now boasts nine wins and has never missed the board in 14 career starts. The lion's share of the purse boosted his bankroll to $486,711.
Making just her fourth career start, Toscano trainee Jk Black Beauty converted off a perfect pocket trip in rein to Brian Sears to win the Lismore Pace earlier on the card.
With the leaving Handsoffmycupcake (Dan Dube) making a break into the first turn, Mattwestern (George Brennan) gained control of the field while Jk Black Beauty played follow-the-leader through fractions of :28.4, :57.4, and 1:26.1.
Meanwhile, Jk Black Beauty's stablemate Offintothesunset (Brent Holland) advanced first over from fifth, but only offered up mild pressure for Mattwestern, who was still clear on top entering the stretch.
As the fillies turned for home, Jk Black Beauty found room along the pylons to push through and prevail in 1:54.1. Freetime (Jordan Stratton) came on for second over the disqualified Offintothesunset. The third-place finisher was set back to fifth by the racing judges after drifting out in the stretch and causing interference to another stablemate, Aria J (Brett Miller), allowing Mattwestern to move up into the show spot.
Jk Black Beauty paid $9.70 to win. The Bettors Delight-My Sisters A Champ filly was one of four Toscano starters in the field scratched down to seven.
"I had a lot of confidence in my filly and George's filly looked like she was up on the bit a little bit and definitely going to go on her way and get me where I needed to go," said Sears of his two-hole trip. "Luckily, my filly was able to get up at the head of the lane."
Jk Black Beauty, who is now three-for-four in her career with a bankroll of $101,800, is owned by 3 Brothers Stables of New York.