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

Yonkers, NY — It was John Gallo taking home the big prize in Tuesday night’s second round of the free online handicapping contest sponsored by Yonkers Raceway and the Standardbred Owners Association of New York.

Gallo earned $615 from his mythical $20 win bet on eight races. He defeated 905 other participants, including Philip Brunori ($600), James Dam ($568), Brenda Hogan ($558) and Dan DeSilva ($529).

The contest continues the next three Tuesdays (Dec. 3, 10 and 17). The final round is set for Saturday (Dec. 21), Yonkers’ final racing program of the season. It is coordinated through Trackmaster (www.trackmaster.com/contest) and shall be run through that site, including free past performance pages for the designated contest dates.

For each of the preliminary rounds, it’s $500 for first place, $250 for second place, $200 for third, $150 for fourth and $100 for fifth. The first ten finishers in each round qualify for the final (a three-way deadlock for 10th this week, so there were 12 qualifiers), but each handicapper may only qualify once.

As for the final, $2,500 to the winner, $1,000 for the runner-up and $500 for third place. The $10,000 total prize pool is a partnership between Yonkers Raceway and the SOA of New York.

More than 1,200 handicappers have signed up thus far.