Yonkers Raceway will return from hiatus Friday night, with the New York-breds making their downstate seasonal debut.
The New York Sire Stakes Hugh Grant Pace will bring the state's glamour-boy division together, with three-year-old colts and geldings having their first rendezvous. A barbershop quartet of events (carded as Race 2, 4, 6 and 7) will comprise the event.
Doctor Butch, who was last seen earlier this month at Yonkers when he won the $275,000 Art Rooney Pace, has drawn Post 3 in the final dash. Jim Morrill Jr. will take a first-time seat behind the son of Art Major for owner Ken Jacobs and trainer Linda Toscano.
'Butch,' who wired the Rooney in 1:51.2 as a $30,000 supplemental entrant, has never missed the board in 14 career starts (nine wins, four seconds, one third).
Among his rivals Friday will be Sir Carys Z Tam (PP2, Pat Lachance). The son of Bettors Delight, who is co-owned and trained by his driver, won his Rooney elim in 1:54.1 and went on to close for third in the final.
The first division of the Hugh Grant will include Framed Art (PP6, Mark MacDonald), who was a solid sire stakes performer last season. The Artiscape colt, co-owned and trained by Andrew Stafford, was third (to Doctor Butch) in the '12 final of the NYSS at Yonkers.
The second division will feature Rooney finalist Bet the Moon (PP3, George Brennan) and Olde Time Hockey (PP4, Brian Sears). The former, a son of Bettors Delight trained by Ron Burke for owner Edwin Gold, made more than $182,000 as a two-year-old. The latter, an Art Major gelding owned by David Van Wart and trained by Tom Fanning, was unraced at two, however, he's done a bang-up job playing catch-up, as evidenced by a life's best 1:50.3 effort at the Meadowlands.
The third division finds Hail the Taxi (PP4, John Campbell) returning to the scene of his greatest triumph. The son of Art Major, trained by Jim Campbell for Fashion Farms, closed for a 35-1 upset in the $119,000 final of the Lawrence B. Sheppard Pace (stakes-record 1:54.1) last summer. He then added a sire stakes win at Yonkers.
After programs on Friday and Saturday, Yonkers' five-night-per-week schedule resumes next week, with first post every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:10 p.m.
(With files from Yonkers)