Fat Mans Alley matched Yonkers Raceway's all-age track record, winning Saturday night's $46,000 Open Handicap Pace.
Assigned inside his seven rivals, Fat Mans Alley protected the pocket for driver Brent Holland while Great Vintage was off and winging through intervals of :27.1, :55.3 and 1:22.4. Shoobees Place, last week's first-up winner, tried that same tact again with rotten results.
Great Vintage owned a length-and-a-half lead entering the lane, but was swallowed up on both sides. Fat Mans Alley edged out from the two-hole and went by, whipping the cone-skimming Malak Uswaad N by a length in 1:50.2. That effort equaled the all-age local standard of the then four-year-old gelding Sapphire City last September.
"The thing about him is he always finishes every week," Holland said of ‘Fat Man’.
"l thought If I was able to him out (of the gate), we had a big shot."
The effort also established a new track record for aged pacing geldings.
Great Vintage saved the bottom of the ticket, with locally-debuting Dream Out Loud N and Eighteen grabbing the remainder. Shoobees Place faded to sixth, while 6-5 choice Statesman N was a non-factor seventh.
Fat Mans Alley, a five-year-old Rocknroll Hanover gelding trained by P.J. Fraley for owner Bamond Racing, returned $21.40 for his fifth win in 19 seasonal starts.
(Yonkers Raceway)