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

Yonkers, NY — Anyone for seconds? Round 2 action in both the George Morton Levy Memorial Pacing Series and Blue Chip Matchmaker lead Yonkers Raceway’s weekend stakes schedule.

All seven first-leg winners — four Levys, three Matchmakers — are back at it.

Saturday night’s (April 2) quartet of $50,000 Levy divisions (races 7 through 10, inclusive) attracted a total of 28 Free-For-All entities.

The first division matches up Blueridge Western (Jason Bartlett, post two) and Palone Ranger (Cat Manzi, post five). Blueridge Western romped to a 1:52.2 victory a week ago — fastest first-leg mile — matching his local win time of the previous week, while Palone Ranger proved best in a blanket finish in his opening series start. Blueridge Western and Palone Ranger have both won their last three starts.

Saturday night’s second Levy event finds King Cat Anvil N (Jordan Stratton, post four) going for back-to-back series wins as well as a third consecutive local victory. The third Levy grouping includes Wholly Louy (Ryan Anderson, post one) and McCedes (Greg Grimsore, post six), 1-2 in their division a week ago, while the final series get-together finds opening-round bridesmaids Beau Rivage N (Manzi, post one) and Foiled Again (Yannick Gingras, post four).

Friday night’s three, $40,000 divisions of the Blue Chip Matchmaker for Open Mares (races 2, 8 and 9) are led by the final event, with first-round victresses Pancleefandarpels (Stratton, post four) and Chancey Lady (Bartlett, post six) giving one another dirty looks.

Last week’s other winner, Nip N Attack, is escorted by Stratton from post position three in Friday night’s second event.

This weekend also offers final preliminary rounds in both the Sagamore Hill and Petticoat Pacing Series. Both series conclude next weekend with finales of $63,400 (Petticoat, Friday) and $70,400 (Sagamore Hill, Saturday), respectively.