Posts drawn for finals of Matchmaker, Levy
April 19, 2016,by Frank Drucker, Publicity Director, Empire City at Yonkers Raceway
Yonkers, NY — Post positions have been drawn for Yonkers Raceway’s Saturday night (April 23) series finals, the $309,800 Blue Chip Matchmaker and $609,000 George Morton Levy Memorial.
The Levy, going as the ninth race (approximate post 9:50 p.m. EDT), found points leader Bit Of A Legend N (Jordan Stratton) landing post position No. 2. Bit Of A Legend N swept his five series prelims, including last week’s track-record, dead-heat (1:51.2) with Wiggle It Jiggleit. Peter Tritton trains for owner Harry von Knoblauch.
Take It Back Terry, last season’s series runner-up and thrice a winner in four tries this time around, outdrew his eight rivals for the final by gaining the rail. George Brennan takes his usual seat for co-owners (trainer) Ron Burke, Weaver Bruscemi, Larry Karr and Phil Collura.
Both Bit Of A Legend N and Take It Back Terry have entrymates in Texican N (Driver TBA, post six) and All Bets Off (Matt Kakaley, post five), respectively. A third entry starts in the form of P H Supercam (Jason Bartlett, post three) and Mach It So (Tim Tetrick, post seven).
Texas Terror N (Brett Miler, post four) and Lucan Hanover (Brian Sears, post eight) round out the field.
The final of the Matchmaker goes as the seventh race (approximate post 9:10 p.m.) and drew out as such: 1-Lady Shadow (Corey Callahan), 2-Regil Elektra (Tetrick), 3-Sell A Bit N (Stratton), 4-Yagonnakissmeornot (Dan Dube), 5-Al Raza N (David Miller), 6-Mach It A Par (Brennan), 7-Venus Delight (Tetrick also listed), 8-Krispy Apple (Bartlett).
Venus Delight is the defending champ, while Yagonnakissmeornot was this season’s points leader.
As has been the case annually, these are the sport’s two richest races of the season to date, with this also being the richest-ever edition of the Levy.
A pair of consolations ($100,000-Levy, $75,000-Matchmaker) go immediately before their finals.
- Tritton pupil looks to add to his ‘Legend’ in Levy final (Wednesday, April 20, 2016)
Bit Of A Legend was already a bit of a star before arriving in the U.S., but the New Zealand-born pacer has been adding to his legend this year with his performances in the George Morton Levy Memorial Pacing Series at Yonkers Raceway. A 7-year-old stallion, Bit Of A Legend went 5-for-5 in the preliminary rounds of the six-week Levy Series, which concludes Saturday with a $609,000 final at Yonkers.
- ‘Overlooked’ Krispy Apple aims for Matchmaker title (Thursday, April 21, 2016)
It is a darn good thing horses do not read the papers or browse the Internet, otherwise Krispy Apple may have developed a huge complex. She has earned more than $1.6 million in her career, amassed $60,000 from this year’s campaign alone and established a track standard of 1:51 for older mares in 2015 at Yonkers Raceway, yet the 8-year-old mare never receives the press other female residents of her shed row continuously attract.
- It’s good to be Jordan Stratton (Thursday, April 21, 2016)
We’re not condoning identity theft, but c’mon, which one of the other 4,247 currently-licensed United States harness drivers wouldn’t change places with Jordan Stratton this Saturday night?