New York Sire Stakes invaded Yonkers Raceway Thursday night, with the $335,804 Art Watson Pace for three-year-old fillies.
Centralia Hanover (Yannick Gingras) served up a 22-1 upset in the opening ($111,268) event. Leaving from post position six, she wound up pocketed to just-over-ever-money Brownsville Bomber (Jim Morrill, Jr.)\, who retook soon after a :27.2 quarter-mile.
A 57-second half and a prompted (by Zellweger Bluechip [George Brennan]) 1:25 three-quarters left "Brownsville" with a length-and-a-quarter lead turning for home. However, that one could not stave off the winner, who ducked inside and edged away by a length-and-a-half in a life-best 1:53.3. The bottom of the ticket went to Vanity Fairest (Pat Lachance).
For Centralia Hanover, a daughter of Art Major trained by Mark Harder for co-owners W Springtime Racing and Rick Phillips, she returned $46 (fifth choice among the half-dozen) for her first win in six seasonal starts.
The second ($111,268) grouping saw Gingras sweep the $73 early sire stakes double with prohibitive fave Romantic Moment in 1:52.4.
In play early from post position five, Romantic Moment worked around JK Fine Art (Morrill, Jr.), then easily held sway through intervals of :28.1, :57.3, 1:25.4 and 1:52.4. She defeated JK Fine Art by 2-3/4 lengths, with New York Kitty (Brennan) third.
For Romantic Moment, an American Ideal lass owned by Brittany Farms and trained by Hall-of-Famer-in-a-few-days Jimmy Takter, she returned $2.20 for her third win in five '12 tries.
"She's for real," Gingras said of Romantic Moment. "Last start (second to American Jewel in the final of Mohawk's Fan Hanover) was the first time I drove her, and she was grabby, but raced very well. Tonight, she was very relaxed, and no problem."
Defending statebred champ Handsoffmycookie (Tim Tetrick, $2.60), back here for the first time since handily winning the $176,484 Lismore earlier this month, made short work of the third and final ($113,268) division.
Leaving from post two, she yielded to Eighthunrdolarbill (Brennan) before grabbing the right at the :28.1 opening quarter. From there, a 57-secod half, 1:26 three-quarters and 1:53.2 finale. Eighthunrdolarbill chased to the wire, beaten a measured half-length, with Ramalama (Eric Goodell) third and Ryder Blue Chip (Jason Bartlett) fourth
For Handsoffmycookie, a daughter of Art Major owned by JFE Enterprises and trained by Scott DiDomenico, it was her second win in four seasonal starts. She has now won 11 of her 16 career starts (5-for-5 here) with earnings just shy of $740,000.
“She loves this track,” DiDomenico said. “I’ve never been around a horse like her with a determination to win. She’s eligible to the Mistletoe Shalee, but I’m going to speak with the owners and we may just keep her in sire stakes.”
New York Sire Stakes continue here Friday night, with the $340,239 Armand Palatucci for three-year-old colts and geldings. It's carded as races 9 through 11 (at $113,413 each) on the 12-race program.
(Yonkers Raceway)