Yonkers Raceway is getting down to both the nitty and the gritty as the oval hosts the fourth — or penultimate — rounds of both the Blue Chip Matchmaker and George Morton Levy Memorial Pacing Series.
Friday night (Apr. 5), the lasses go in three, $40,000 Matchmaker events, consecutively carded as races 7 through 9.
The opening division cries out ‘two-speed number’ with pole-sitting Dont Think Twice A (Jason Bartlett) and Feelin Red Hot (George Brennan, post 3). The former owns a Matchmaker win and pair of seconds, while the latter—just in time for the NHL playoffs—eyes a hat trick.
The second event sees another three-peat wannabe in Bettor Joy N (Tim Tetrick, post 7), starting outside her foes.
Ideal Lifestyle A (Brennan, post 1) has chased home Bettor Joy N the last couple of tries.
The final Matchmaker grouping rolls through defending champion Shartin N (Tetrick, post 4) as the millionairess is looking for her third prelim victory.
Seaswift Joy N (Jim Marohn, Jr., post 8), yet another series two-fer, has won four of her five local starts.
Saturday evening (Apr. 6th) fourth foray of the Levy was drawn and quartered into $50,000 divisions (races 5, 7, 8 and 10).
The first get-together asks the musical question, ‘Can Pacing Major N (Jordan Stratton, post 2) do it again?’
Fresh off last week’s 67-1 stunner—and first board finish of the season—the Major hooks other round winners in Endeavor (Bartlett, post 3) and JJ Flynn (Tetrick, post 4).
Saturday’s second event fins More The Better N (Scott Zeron, post 6) in search of a third series win, but stuck with a first poor draw.
Anythingforlove A (Joe Bongiorno, post 1) was an opening-round winner and figures to cut this mile.
The third group is led by Lyons Steel (Stratton, post 6), who threw down the fastest mile (1:50.4) of the local season a week ago.
Ideal Jimmy (Brent Holland, post 8) won his first two series tries, but ran out of racetrack a week ago.
The Downtown Bus (Zeron, post 4) and The Wall (Bongiorno, post 5) also have preliminary wins to their credit.
Saturday night’s final division is led by two-round winner Western Fame (Dan Dube, post 3), who convincingly whipped Dr J Hanover (Tetrick, post 6) on the square when they opposed one another a week ago.
(With files from Yonkers)