by Frank Drucker, Empire City at Yonkers Raceway

Yonkers, NY — That Matt Kakaley is nothing if not an instigator. What Kakaley did Saturday night (Dec. 10) was blow up Yonkers Raceway’s Pick-5 wager, winning three-fifths of it with double-digit numbers.

Chris Brokate photo

First Class Horse and Matt Kakaley stun their rivals in the Saturday evening feature at Yonkers.

First, Kakaley—with a catch-drive—bottomed out the $45,000 Open Handicap Pace with First Class Horse ($29.40).

Leaving outside his six rivals, First Class Horse was strung out early by Mach It So (Jason Bartlett), then just rolled along…as in 27 seconds flat, :54.3 and 1:21.4.

He owned a 1-1/4 length lead into the lane before the hooves began to get heavy. However, even a slow (:28.4) last quadrant couldn’t get him beat, as 7-5 fave The Real One (Pat Lachance) closed well but not well enough.

The Real One missed by three-quarters of a length in 1:50.3, with Mach It So, Blood Brother (Scott Zeron) and the ubiquitous Foiled Again (George Brennan) rounding out the payees.

For fifth choice First Class Horse, a 4-year-old son of Western Terror owned by Vincent Laurenzo and trained by Tom Milici, it was his sixth win in 31 seasonal starts. The exacta paid $88.50, with the triple returning $150

As if Kakaley didn’t throw enough of a monkey wrench into the Pick-5 players, he threw in Somewhere Fancy ($29.60) and Dream Out Loud N ($46.20) into the equation, ensuring much unclaimed coinage.

Thus, Monday’s (Dec. 12) program features a $7,260.85 double carryover booster shot into the Pick-5, which is a 50-cent base wager, races six through 10.