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

Yonkers, NY — Odds-on Charmed Life (Yannick Gingras, $3.50) slapped the boys silly again Sunday afternoon (Nov. 19), winning Yonkers Raceway’s windy $40,000 Open Trot.
With ‘only’ a seven-horse field, the weekly trotting feature went at the flat mile as the late-morning opener.

Darragh Riordan photo

Charmed Life defeats her male rivals for the second consecutive contest at Yonkers Raceway.

First-up a week ago, Charmed Life was in play early here. From post position five, she found the front well before a :27.2 opening quarter-mile. Lookslikeachpndale (Dan Dube), who left directly outside of the lass, was hard-used just to cram into the pocket.

Once Charmed Life made the lead, there wasn’t a whole lot of suspense. She finished off her pre-noon rounds (:58.2, 1:27.3, 1:56.3), with only minimal outside grief from Home’n Dry (Jason Bartlett). That one moved from fifth and challenged to the final turn before backing away.

The margin was a couple of lengths in and out of the final turn and three-quarters of a length at the wire.

Lookslikeachpndale easily saved second, while DW’s NY Yank (George Brennan) Buen Camino (Brian Sears) and Tight Lines (Jeff Gregory) were relegated to the minors.

For Charmed Life, a 7-year-old millionairess daughter of Majestic Son co-owned as Allard Racing by trainer Rene Allard, Yves Sarazin and VIP Internet Stable, it was her eighth win in 23 seasonal starts. The exacta paid $17, with the triple returning $81.50.

The scheduled ‘New York, New York Double’ was cancelled after Aqueduct scrapped its card.

Sunday matinees, along with the weather-permitting ‘New York, New York Double,’ return Nov. 26 (post time TBA).