Round two of Yonkers Raceway’s series for the adult table set, the Blue Chip Matchmaker and George Morton Levy Memorial Series, has been drawn.
Friday night, it’s the Matchmaker, with three consecutive (races 6 through 8), $40,000 events again featuring some of the sport’s best pacing mares.
The final division collides two of last week’s first-leg winners in Al Raza N (Jordan Stratton, Post 4) and Lady Shadow (Corey Callahan, Post 6). The former benefitted from a quick pace to close in a season’s-best 1:52.3. The six-year-old daughter of Gotta Go Cullect has won two of her three seasonal starts, while the latter, a five-year-old Shadow Play miss, won her season’s debut wire-to-wire in 1:53.4.
Last week’s other winner, 39-1 upsetter Mach It A Par (George Brennan, post 2), landed in this week’s opening event. The six-year-old Mach Three miss, who prevailed by a nose in 1:53.2, has hit the board in five of her six seasonal efforts.
Saturday night finds five $50,000 divisions (races 5, 7 through 10) of the Levy, with all six, opening-round winners back for more.
Two of them—Bit Of A Legend N (Stratton, Post 4) and Mach It So (Tim Tetrick, Post 6)—landed in the third division. Bit Of A Legend N, a seven-year-old Down Under son of Bettors Delight, has three wins and two seconds in five North American tries, including last week’s 1:52 effort. Mach It So, a six-year-old Mach Three gelding, won last Saturday’s ’16 debut in 1:51.3.
Lucan Hanover (Brennan, Post 6) leads the opening grouping after wiring last week’s rivals in 1:51.3. The six-year-old Western Ideal gelding is 3-for-3 to begin his season.
Last week’s hundred-dollar puzzler, Texas Terror N (Matt Kakaley, Post 4), again tries to tickle the toteboard, in this week’s second division. The eight-year-old Down Under Western Terror gelding has hit the board in seven of his nine seasonal starts. Foiled Again (Yannick Gingras, Post 3) also drew into this event after a fourth-place effort in his series/season debut a week ago
P H Supercam (Jason Bartlett, Post 8), a two-move 1:53.1 winner in his series opener from a seven-hole, did himself one venue worse in the evening’s fourth division. The nine-year-old Million Dollar Cam gelding, with a win in two seasonal starts. is making his 175th career start Saturday.
Take It Back Terry (Brennan, Post 1) looms a mini mutuel in the final grouping on the heels of a 1:51.2 effort in Round 1. It was the first win in two ’16 tries for the seven-year-old Western Terror gelding, who becomes a career millionaire sooner rather than later.
(Yonkers Raceway)