Last Saturday night, Yonkers Raceway offered $280,000 in overnight purse money and this Saturday, that total will be eclipsed with the $326,000 that the Hilltop Oval is putting up for grabs on the 10-race card.
Once again two $50,000 Open Handicaps -- one for trotters and one for pacers -- will be featured and the strong undercard is highlighted with a pair of $39,000 events.
The 50-cent Pick-5 commences with this week's Open Trot, race 6, which pits the Allard Stables' Red Hot Herbie, who got the better of the equal draw for posts 7 and 8, against the hard-hitting Julie Miller trainee, Allerage Star. The rivalry continues as the Gural/Settlemoir-owned charge pays the toll over the GW Bridge in quest of the dough. This outstanding mare is again handicapped with the eight hole but she is so good that she almost succeeded in getting home before the boys last week from the same tough spot. After cutting the fractions the talented mare was overtaken in the deep stretch from a two-hole perfect trip by Red Hot Herbie in 1:55.4 and finished second.
The other mare in the race, Dot Dot Dot Dash, no slouch herself, moves to the coveted pylon position off a third-place finish to both ‘Herbie’ and ‘the Star’ in last week's battle with many of the same foes. The veteran Springbank Sam N, the oldest trotter in the race, drew the four-hole and also can threaten from there for trainer, Peter Tritton.
Red Hot Herbie has the upper hand cash-wise with $79,000 on his card thus far this year, and with another $50,000 in purse money in this week's rematch his totals can easily increase.
Race 7, the Open Pace, has the same $50,000 on the line and Guantanamo Bay will have the skyrocketing talent Scott Zeron in the bike from post seven in this handicapped event.
While Zeron decided to stick around the Hilltop Oval he has joined the ranks of the talented field of reinsmen that are surely among the best in the game currently racing today. That talented group will be further enhanced when "the White Knight" and latest Hall of Famer, Brian Sears, again joins the local driving colony. In the meantime "Scotty Z" has risen to second place in the ranking behind perennial driving champ Jason Bartlett.
Joining the group of equine stars is a freshened-up Levy winner, Bit Of A Legend N who is burdened with post eight. ‘The Legend’ has been given a well-deserved rest since last November and comes into the contest off a respectable third-place finish in his qualifier. And with over $700,000 in his 2016 bank account he is certainly to be reckoned with.
The Dover Downs invader, Soto, who has three wins in five seasonal starts, picks up another Yonkers talent in Matt Kakaley and figures to be a factor. Also deserving serious consideration are Caviart Luca, who has been knocking at the door for Ron Burke, and Matias Ruiz's, Sports Bettor, who has drawn inside from last week's post seven.
The races can be seen live on yonkersraceway.com. First race post time is the usual 7:10 p.m. and if you have an Empire City Bets online wagering account there are rebates as high as eight percent. See empirecitybets.com for details.
(with files from SOA of NY)