Yonkers, NY – George Brennan was the man of the hour Saturday night (Feb. 16), taking both halves of Yonkers Raceway’s $44,000 co-featured Open Handicaps.

George Brennan guides Dom Domingo to win in $44,000 co-feature at Yonkers on Saturday night. Mike Lizzi Photo

It was a second-up-to-first-home Don Domingo N ($5.80) in the week’s adult pace. From post position five, he watched as just-over-even-money favorite (1.05) Bettor’s Fire N (Ron Cushing) lead through cheapy subsections of :28.2, 58.3 and 1:26.3.

Hitching a lift behind season-debuting Somewhere in L A (Jason Bartlett), Don Domingo N—in the his first Open ‘Cap start—did get within range. Bettor’s Fire N owned a length lead into the lane, but ‘Don’ ran him down, in a manner of speaking

He picked off the leader, winning by a neck in 1:54.2. Somewhere in L A was a credible third, with Our Zak Whitby A (Dan Dube) and a ‘19-starting Bit of a Legend N (Jordan Stratton) settling for the remainder.

For second choice Don Domingo N, a 7-year-old Down Under American Ideal gelding owned by William Hartt and trained by Lance Hudson, it was his fifth win in six seasonal/U-S starts. The exacta paid $11, the triple returned $80 and the superfecta paid $240.

DW’s NY Yank and George Brennan won the second half of the co-featured $44,000 Open Handicap at Yonkers. Mike Lizzi Photo.

The weekly trotting feature was not for the squeamish, reduced to a field of five after Melady’s Monet came up ill and two of the starters came up breaking. What resulted was a two-speed, two-favorite, soft-fractions number and DW’s NY Yank (Brennan, $4.50) beating Smalltownthrowdown (Dube) by a 1-1/4 lengths (:29, :59.3. 1:27.4, 1:56.1), matching a season’s-best effort.

Fearless Man (Bartlett) and Lily’s Swan Pond (Joe Bongiorno) flipped positions after the former was deemed to have interfered with the latter. Weslynn Dancer (Matt Kakaley) brought up the quintet rear.

For DW’s NY Yank, a 10-year-old Dilbert Hanover gelding co-owned (as Burke Racing) by (trainer) Ron Burke and Weaver Bruscemi, it was his second win in four seasonal starts. The exacta paid $13.60, with triple and superfecta wagering cancelled due to short staffing.