by Frank Drucker, Publicity Director, Empire City at Yonkers Raceway

Yonkers, NY — Favored Charmed Life (Yannick Gingras, $5.50) was first-up and faultless Sunday afternoon (Nov. 12), winning Yonkers Raceway’s $40,000 Open Handicap Trot.

Chris Brokate photo

Charmed Life beats the boys on Sunday afternoon at Yonkers Raceway.

With ‘only’ a seven-horse field, the weekly trotting feature went at the flat mile. Charmed Life, unhurried from post position three, saw an early scrum for the lead. A very wide In Secret (George Brennan) eventually worked around Georgie’s Pockets (Joe Bongiorno) just after a :27.3 opening quarter-mile.

It was a 57-second intermission as Charmed Life took out of fourth. The lone lass here found minimal resistance as In Secret closed up shop around the 1:26 three-quarters.

Charmed Life, showing few effects from 21 days out, opened a couple of lengths in and out of the final turn. She eventually closed the sale, winning by 2-3/4 lengths in 1:54.4. Home’n Dry (Jason Bartlett) edged Tight Lines (Jeff Gregory) for second, with Buen Camino (Brian Sears) and ‘Georgie’ rounding out the payees.

For Charmed Life, a 7-year-old daughter of Majestic Son co-owned as Allard Racing by trainer Rene Allard, Yves Sarazin and VIP Internet Stable, it was her seventh win in 22 seasonal starts (career earnings in excess of $1.2 million). The exacta paid $33, the triple returned $99 and the superfecta paid $203.

Sunday’s return of the ‘New York, New York Double’ offered a winning combination of 1-Dig That Mine (Aqueduct’s 3rd race) and 6-Jacks to Open (Yonkers’ 5th race) returning $15.90 for every correct $1 wager. Total pool was $4,608.

Sunday matinees, along with the ‘New York, New York Double,’ return Nov. 19 (post time TBA).