Two hard-knocking veterans who’ve made careers of winning continued their ways Saturday, Sept. 29 with N F Happenstance taking the $44,000 Open Handicap Trot and Mach It So winning the $44,000 Open Handicap Pace.
Favoured-mare N F Happenstance whipped five gelded gentlemen in the weekly trotting feature. Assigned outside all of them, she left for the front, led through fractions of :27.4, :58.2 and 1:26.3 and completed her wire job with a 1:55.4 win.
Fashion Creditor was second, closing to miss three-quarters of a length, with DWs NY Yank tiring in the pocket and ending up third. Barry Black and Don Dream picked off the remainder while a first-up Tight Lines broke.
For N F Happenstance, an eight-year-old daughter of S Js Caviar owned by James Moore III and trained by Carol Jamieson-Parker, it was her 10th win in 26 seasonal starts. Driven by Jack Parker Jr., she paid $4.10 to win.
The week’s marquee pace saw a gutty, two-move effort from Mach It So. Nose-to-gate from assigned post-position five, he was stuffed in behind Doctor Butch. Doctor Butch paced a :27.2 opening quarter-mile as 3-5 fave More The Better N made his move from third.
More The Better N made the lead before a :56 half and, soon after, Mach It So was back for more. That one engaged More The Better N after a 1:24 three-quarters, then put him away late the lane. Mach It So defeated a second-up Theartofconfusion A by a half-length in 1:52.1.
Doctor Butch was third, with More The Better N fading to a money-burning fourth. Caviart Luca settled for the final pay envelope.
For fourth choice Mach it So, an eight-year-old double millionaire Mach Three gelding owned by Bamond Racing and trained by Jeffrey Bamond Jr., it was his seventh win in 22 seasonal starts. Driven by Joe Bongiorno, he paid $18.00 to win.
(With files from Yonkers Raceway)