Yonkers Raceway’s Friday night fare featured the $291,475 New York Sire Stakes Armand Palatucci Pace for three-year-old colts and geldings.
Three divisions -- worth $96,025, $97,725 and $97,725, respectively -- went at it.
The opening group saw Bet The Moon (Jim Morrill Jr.) last on the lead in a life-best effort. In play from post position No. 4, Bet The Moon led the lads through fractions of :27.1, :56.1, 1:24.1 and 1:52.4. Bettor Than You (George Brennan), as the 3-4 favourite, played the role of first-up chaser, only to miss a head. Third went to Scalped (Brian Sears), never a threat to the leading pair.
For second choice Bet The Moon, a son of Bettors Delight owned by Edwin Gold and trained by Ron Burke, he returned $6.20 for his second (sire stakes) win in six seasonal starts. The exacta paid $12, with the triple returning $27.20.
The middle event figured to be enticing, and it did not disappoint. Odds-on Fool Me Once (Scott Zeron) left to the lead from post No. 5, putting up intervals of :27.3 and :55.4. He then had his own private battle with a first-up Captive Audience (Sears) in and out of a 1:23.4 three-quarters.
Neither was giving in, with the former holding off the latter by a nose in 1:51.3 (last quarter :27.4) -- a fair effort from two colts, neither of whom who had never been over a half-mile track before. Doctor Butch (Brennan), the Rooney winner, was a best-of-the-rest third, beaten two and a half lengths.
For Fool Me Once, an Art Major colt co-owned by Fergus, Ontario trainer Mark Austin and Daniel Smith of London, Ontario, he returned $2.40 for his sixth win in eight seasonal starts. The exacta paid $4.80, the triple (three wagering choices in order) returned $14 and the superfecta (Hail The Taxi [Jordan Stratton] was fourth) paid $38.20.
“Anytime you make a first start on a half, you’re always a bit concerned,” Zeron said. “I wanted to leave, but at the same time be cautious. When [Captive Audience] moved alongside down the back, he actually put a head in front, but my colt dug in.
“They’re just two very game horses.”
The third division saw someone have to go and get rewrite after Source Of Pride (Sears, $2.90) scribbled his name in the track record book as the fastest sophomore pacing colt ever.
That happened after a 1:50.4 Westchester waltz (:26.3, :54, 1:21.4) from post No. 2 earned him a three-quarter length victory over a closing Olde Time Hockey (Morrill Jr.). Third went to Track Master D (Jason Bartlett).
“He was very impressive,” Sears said. “He did it on his own. He was getting tired late, but I never thought he was going to get beat.”
Ironically, Sears’ name was conjoined to the old record-holder, Pet Rock’s 1:51 effort in last season’s Art Rooney Pace.
For Source Of Pride, a son of American Ideal trained by Jimmy Takter for breeder Brittany Farms and Ontario co-owners Marvin Katz, Al Libfeld, Sam Goldband and Louie Camara, he’s now four-for-nine this season. The exacta paid $5.40, with the triple (again, three wagering choices in order) returning $17.40.
The second round of Yonkers’ Jackpot Next Door Claiming Series featured seven races (five for lads, two for lasses), identical to a week ago (“second verse, same as the first”), only this time, any claim on a horse’s second series start was accompanied by a 50 per cent premium in addition to normal allowances for age and gender.
After 139 claims were entered on 25 different horses in the first round, this week’s tally -- authorized by claims commissar Bob (OUTP) Miecuna -- showed a total of 22 slips filled out on seven different horses.
The five-Friday series offers a $20,000 purse for each prelim race. The finals, worth $76,000 (boys) and $59,900 (girls), and their requisite consolations, are scheduled for July 26.
Yonkers' pair of Friday night $46,000 co-featured Open Handicaps -- for trotters and distaff pacers -- were won by Somebody AS (Jeff Gregory, $25.20) in a life-best 1:55, and Royal Cee Cee N (Stratton, $7.10) in 1:52.4.
(With files from Yonkers Raceway)