There are horse trailers, there are trailing horses...and, in the case of Yonkers Raceway Friday night, there are going to be horse trailers with trailing horses.
That's because the opening round of Yonkers' debuting "Jackpot Next Door" Claiming Series has produced overloaded fields.
The five-Friday series, for $20,000 claiming pacers of both sexes, has proven quite popular. So much so that seven of the evening's baker's dozen races are "Jackpot Next Door" events, and all but one of those events have second-tier starters. All races during all four prelim rounds carry a $20,000 purse.
Ladies first (races 1 and 4), with the second of those two a nine-horse affair. The lads do battle in races 5, 6, 10, 11 and 12, featuring 9, 9, 10, 10 and 10 entrants, respectively.
A horse may be claimed only during his/her first two series starts, with a 50 percent premium added to a second-start claim (in addition to standard allowances for age and gender). The finals, worth $76,000 (boys) and $59,900 (girls), and their requisite consolations, are scheduled for Friday, July 26.
(Yonkers Raceway)