Harness racing’s Grand Circuit rolls back into Yonkers Raceway on Friday night as the oval plays host to divisions of the W.N. Reynolds Memorial for three-year-old pacers. Colts and geldings will face off in a pair of splits, worth $23,250 and $23,750, in races four and seven, and the fillies will match up in two flights, with purses of $28,500 and $29,000, in races five and six.
Coalition Hanover (post six, Dexter Dunn/Chris Ryder) won a section of the Pennsylvania Stallion Series most recently at The Meadows in 1:51.3 and will look to keep sharp in the first Reynolds test for the boys. He’ll face off against the likes of last year’s New York Sire Stakes Excelsior A Series and Massachusetts Sire Stakes champion Mullinax (post four, Scott Zeron/Mark Ford), and Whichwaytothebeach (post three, Andrew McCarthy/Brett Pelling), who won a few stakes events as a rookie, including the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes consolation.
King James Express (post three, Jason Bartlett/Mark Harder), last year’s New York Sire Stakes champion in the two-year-old colt and gelding pace division, will look to get his sophomore campaign started on the right foot in the second Reynolds tilt for the fellas. He will see two familiar faces from the NYSS program in American Courage (post six, Matt Kakaley/Travis Alexander) and Town Gossip (post eight, Joe Bongiorno/Jenn Bongiorno). American Courage won his elimination and the final of MGM Springfield Stakes at Yonkers and then added four NYSS legs to his ledger, and Town Gossip was the runner-up in the NYSS final and won two preliminary rounds.
Heart Of Mine (post one, Scott Zeron/Linda Toscano) was second to eventual 1:48.4 performer Test Of Faith in the New York Sire Stakes final for two-year-old pacing fillies a year ago, and she tops Friday night’s first Reynolds rumble for the ladies. Heart Of Mine, a daughter of Roll With Joe, won an overnight race at Yonkers in 1:55 on April 28. Her biggest competition could come from Let Er Buck (post seven, Mark MacDonald/Ray Schnittker), who won three stakes events in Pennsylvania as a freshman and is a Betting Line half-sister to $1.7 million earner Huntsville.
MacDonald and Schnittker also have Carrington (post three) in the other section for this group. Carrington, a So Surreal filly, recently finished second in the Bobby Weiss Series final at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono and was the runner-up in the 2020 New York Excelsior A Series final for two-year-old pacing fillies. Another stakes winner in this field is Podium Girl (post two, Dunn/Ryder), who collected her triumphs at New Jersey’s Freehold Raceway. Also entered is DC Batgirl (post seven, George Brennan/Britney Dillon), who qualified for last year’s New York Sire Stakes final and comes in off a fast 1:51.2 qualifier at Harrah’s Hoosier Park.
In addition to the stakes action, Friday’s ten-race program also has a $37,000 Open Handicap Trot (race eight) and a $24,000 Preferred Trot (race nine). Post time is 7:15 p.m.
(Yonkers)