Yonkers, NY — It never hurts to bring in the professionals. With Yonkers Raceway offering a hefty Presidents’ Night (Monday, Feb. 17) Pick-5 wager — double-carryover of $16,144.27 and a $35,000 guaranteed pool — we’ve enlisted the assistance of Peter Venaglia.

Venaglia, in addition to his many hats as co-host (with this author) of Yonkers’ Saturday broadcast, 1st Vice President of the Standardbred Owners Association of New York and horse owner, has been known to handicap with aplomb. His “Hilltop Helper” is a Saturday selection sheet, offered both in-house and online. The popular and effective “Helper” includes analysis and multi-horse/multi-race plays.

Thus, we’ve entrusted Venaglia to put together a ticket for the Monday Pick-5 (50-cent base wager, races five through nine), including his thoughts behind the choices.

5th race – 1 (Gypsy Leather) and 2 (Pop Icon) – former has speed from pole, latter figures to get a trip second off class dip.

6th race – 3 (Twin B Impressive), 4 (Barimah A) and 5 (Fox Valley Inferno) – ‘Impressive’ finally gets a post he can work with, Barimah A just missed cutting mile this level two starts ago, ‘Inferno’ has been chasing at least as good out of town.

7th race – 2 (Razor’s Edge) and 4 (Sugar Shock) – ‘Razor’ has won two of last four elsewhere and gets 10-hole mulligan in last while ‘Sugar’ actually beat theoretically better last month.

8th race – 1 (Spectrum) and 5 (Magritte) – Spectrum took seven-hole money at this level when last here but could not reach and Magritte did outrace his odds in last few, though figures to chase.

9th race – 2 (Mister Daytona N), 4 (Capozzo) and 5 (Knocking Around) – ‘Daytona’ beat up lesser and is full of back class, Capozzo — beaten favorite in last — has perhaps never been in this cheap while Knocking Around nearly blew up the board in his latest effort.

That’s 72 combinations for a $36 investment.

The man has spoken.

Program pages for the Monday Pick-5 are at this link.