Yonkers Raceway had no stakes races Saturday night, but that in no way meant the card was ordinary. Not with an all-age track record in the $48,000 Open Handicap Pace and a 49-1 bombardier in the equally-valued Open Handicap Trot.
Up first was Crombie A (Brian Sears, $5.60), who earned his place in the record book with the fastest mile ever in Westchester not involving plane, train or automobile.
Leaving from post position No. 4 as the 9-5 favourite, Crombie A had no choice but to watch as Forty Five Red (George Brennan) threw down the gauntlet...as in :26.3, :54.2 and 1:21.4.
If Forty Five Red was done off those numbers, he didn’t get the memo. Texican N (Eric Carlson) was closing ranks from a loose pocket, while Crombie A, floating off the cones from fourth in an understandably gapped-out field, was hitting his best stride.
Forty Five Red had a length and a quarter lead into the lane, but the fractions were finally catching up with him. He hung tough, but faltered late. Crombie A ended up out-gaming Texican N by three-quarters of a length in a life-best 1:50.1. Forty Five Red held third, beaten a length and a half, with In Commando (Eric Goodell) and McErlean (Tyler Buter) rounding out the payees.
The Crombie A effort extricated Sapphire City (2012), Fat Mans Alley (2013) and Sunfire Blue Chip (2014) and their 1:50.2 miles out of the “all-age” box, as well as the venerable Silver Almahurst (1993) and Keystone Velocity (2014) and their 1:50.4’s from the “aged horse” section.
For Crombie A, a nine-year-old Down Under son of Life Sign trained by Rene Allard and owned by Allard Racing Inc., Kapildeo Singh and Albert Abdala III, it was his fifth win in 16 seasonal starts (five-for-seven in his stateside career). The exacta paid $55, with the triple returning $194.
The week’s marquee trot saw 49-1 rank outsider Rock Of Cashel (Goodell, $101.50) find himself pocketed from post No. 2.
He watched as Dewycolorintheline (Jordan Stratton) and a first-up Boffin (Sears) drop the imaginary gloves (:29, :58.3, 1:27.2). “Dewy” owned a short lead into the lane, and was about to win the battle, but lose the war.
Rock Of Cashel edged inside and by, with the winning margin a length in 1:55.4. Dewycolorintheline photoed Boffin for second, with Backstreet Hanover (Larry Stalbaum) and Rossini (Jeff Gregory) settled for the small change.
For Rock Of Cashel, a five-year-old son of Majestic Son trained by Mark Harder for co-owners Jeffrey Ruch and Alan Richardson, it was his fourth win in 21 ’15 tries. The exacta paid $529, the triple returned $6,736 and the superfecta paid $23,455 (base $2 payout, 10-cent ticket worth $1,172.75).
Note that since no one took down Saturday’s Pick 5, Monday’s gimmick begins with a carryover of $4,100.44 and a $10,000 guaranteed pool (50-cent base wager, races seven through 11, with program pages available at yonkersraceway.com).
The Raceway’s live season continues Monday at 7:10 p.m.
(Yonkers Raceway)