Returning to his home in New Jersey after a cross country sojourn, Hall of Fame trainer Chuck Sylvester will look to claim victory in the 57th Yonkers Trot, first leg of the Trotting Triple Crown, with Live Jazz
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The Yonkers Trot drew a field of seven three-year-old trotters for the $445,474 race to be held Saturday, July 9 at Yonkers Raceway. The Trot will be Race 9, with a post time of about 10:05 p.m.
Live Jazz is 5-1 in the morning line and will start from Post 6. He is coupled with his stablemate Pegasus Blue Chip (Post 4) and is trained by Scott Andrews. The son of Andover Hall is co-owned by Sylvester, Melvin Hartman, Neal Goldman and Juniper II LLC, which is driver John Campbell, currently recovering from injuries in a racing accident.
Sylvester has not fully retired from training, but he’s taking a different tact this year.
“I’m going to go to the barn when I want to and he’s [Andrews] going to be responsible for everything. I’m not going to do the entering, I’m not going to do the warming up, but I’ll be around.”
Sylvester has just returned from a month long cross country trip.
“I left the day he raced [at Chester on May 30]. All winter I trained him and I thought he was ready to go. But every year I tell the boys we think we have them hung up and then we don’t do good the first couple starts. Sure enough, he [Live Jazz] ran and then they qualified him and he ran again, made some changes and now, by God, he was super the other day.”
Sylvester was referring to a career-best 1:55.4 mile in the $78,200 Historic Stake at Tioga on June 25, when Live Jazz led from the half to the wire, and won by four and three-quarter lengths.
Sylvester thinks the Yonkers oval will suit his colt.
“He’s very good on a small track, so he’ll be OK. He [Andrews] changed his driving bit [last start] and Jimmy Meittinis said he couldn’t have drove any better. He’ll like Yonkers and Jimmy’s going to drive him at Yonkers.”
There are some family ties to Live Jazz for Sylvester.
“I trained his mother [Limitless Sky]. We gave $55,000 for him, he was a little immature and that could be the last foal she had [it is so far her next to last], but they weren’t buying this one back. He was a slow learner last year. We took our time with him and he came around late and if nothing happens to him, he’ll make a good account of himself the rest of the year.”
Sylvester has just put in quite a few miles, himself, driving all over the country with his wife, Sharon.
“We left June 1, went to Ohio, spent four or five days, stopped in Wisconsin, stopped at Yellowstone National Park, went to Seattle, Washington, to see my daughter in Fairbanks, Alaska.
“We flew up there [from Seattle], spent five days, came back, went to California to see relatives and now we are on our way home. We were going to get to Yellowstone and we made the stops in between, driving about six hours a day. We’ve never taken a vacation in the summer time, so we said we were going to do it once, before we got too old. We had a lot of bases covered so we’ll have done a lot by the time we get home.”
There was much wildlife to be seen in Alaska, along with family.
“A lot of moose, a lot of elk,” says Sylvester. “My daughter lives in a town called North Pole, Alaska. We saw Santa Claus. I told him I’d like to have my daughter back down here in the states.”
Here is a look at the field for the Yonkers Trot:
1. Del Cielo, George Brennan, 3-1
2. Leader Of The Gang, David Miller, 9-5
3. Celebrity Bombay, Brett Miller, 8-1
4. Pegasus Blue Chip, Yannick Gingras, 5-1
5. Evil Urges, Jimmy Whittemore, 4-1
6. Live Jazz, Jim Meittinis, 5-1
7. Bambino Hall, Tim Tetrick 10-1
The filly companion race, the Hudson Filly Trot, will also be contested on July 9, with a purse of $237,714. Here is a look at the field:
1. Angelette Hanover, George Brennan, 4-1
2. Lady Rainbow, Jeff Gregory, 5-1
3. Jezzy, Tim Tetrick, 6-5 (coupled with Iron Lady)
4. Crème De Cocoa, DR Ackerman, 5-1
5. That’snotmyname, Jimmy Takter, 6-1
6. Iron Lady, Cat Manzi, 6-5 (coupled with Jezzy)
7. Cabaret Princess, Ron Pierce 12-1
(With files from HRC)
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