by Frank Drucker, publicity director, Empire City at Yonkers Raceway

Yonkers, NY — And you thought we were done with trotters after the Yonkers Trot? Shame, shame. The New York Sires Stakes rookie fillies invade Yonkers Raceway on Monday night (August 27) for the $248,025 Mike Cohen Trot.

Post time for the 10-race card is 7:40 p.m., with the quintet of statebred events, honoring the late publicity pro (most notably here at Yonkers and NBC Sports) going as races two, three, five, six and seven. The first two divisions go for $50,145 each, while the final three are worth $49,245 per.

Leading the ladies — point-wise, anyway — is American Pride. The daughter of Giant Hit has hit the board in all four first-season tries ($34,291). Twice a NYSS winner (Buffalo, Tioga), she drew the pylons in the penultimate parade, with trainer Jeff Bolyard driving for owner Donald Bolyard.

Monday’s first NYSS division is led by Lakin Beau Bakin (Jim Morrill, Jr., post five), going after her fifth consecutive victory. The Credit Winner lass, trained by Phil Fluet for owner Michael Woodward, has never lost with Morrill at the controls. She owns a sub-2:00 effort (1:59.4), taken last month in a Tioga maiden-breaker.

Nirvana Blue Chip (Mike Simons, post three) blew away her NYSS rivals at Tioga (life-best 2:00.4) one week ago.

The second NYSS get-together features Epangeline (Ray Schnittker, post six), a Conway Hall ma’am who is board-certified in all six tries (three wins, two seconds, one third), while the third event includes a pair of multiple winners in Princessofhollywd (Morrill Jr., post five) and RC Biscuit (Dan Daley, post seven).

The evening’s final statebred group finds It’s Coast Time (Jeff Gregory, post seven), a daughter of Credit Winner who is three-for-three ($40,797) thus far for Team Lail, opposing the likes of Perugia (Stephane Bouchard, post one), Nurse Conway (Morrill Jr., post two) and Southwind Martini (Bill Bailey, post four).

The multi-million-dollar New York Sires Stakes traverse the state, culminated by the $1.2 million New York Night of Champions here on Saturday, September 15, featuring eight, $150,000 divisional finals. Please visit www.nysirestakes.com for a complete schedule and further information.

Live racing is currently offered at Yonkers with six programs per week — Monday through Saturday nights at 7:40 p.m. Harness and thoroughbred simulcasting is available seven days a week, while Empire City’s nearly 5,500 video gaming machines are in play daily from 10:00 a.m.-2:00 a.m.

A friendly reminder that the 53rd edition of the Yonkers Trot, worth $644,770, goes this Saturday night. The second jewel of the Trotting Triple Crown is led by elimination winners Adrian Chip (Robert Bergh, post five) and Primary AS (Trond Smedshammer, post six).