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

Yonkers, NY — Two hard-knocking veterans who’ve made careers of winning did just that Saturday night (Sept. 29), annexing Yonkers Raceway’s co-featured $44,000 Open Handicaps.

Joe Hoenigmann photo

N F Happenstance beats the boys on Saturday night at Yonkers Raceway.

Ladies first, so props to favored N F Happenstance (Jack Parker Jr. $4.10) for whipping five gelded gentlemen in the weekly trotting feature. Assigned outside all of them, she did her thing—leaving—then went the distance (:27.4, :58.2, 1:26.3, 1:55.4). Fashion Creditor (Brent Holland) was a sold second, closing to miss by three-quarters of a length, with DW’s NY Yank (George Brennan) tiring in the pocket and ending up third.

Barry Black (Jordan Stratton) and Don Dream (Jason Bartlett) picked off the remainder, while a first-up Tight Lines (Jeff Gregory) broke.

For N F Happenstance, an 8-year-old daughter of S J’s Caviar owned by James Moore III and trained by Carol Jamieson-Parker, it was her 10th win (with 10 seconds) in 26 seasonal starts (career 30-for-107) The exacta paid $51.50, the triple returned $104 and the superfecta paid $1,013.

The week’s marquee pace saw a gutty, two-move effort from Mach It So (Joe Bongiorno, $18). Nose-to-gate from assigned post position five, he was stuffed in behind Doctor Butch (Bartlett). The Doctor found a :27.2 opening quarter-mile as 3-5 fave More The Better N (Eric Goodell) was about to move from third.

More The Better N made the lead before a 56-second half, and soon after, Mach It So was back for more. That one engaged More The Better N after a 1:24 three-quarters, then put him away late the lane. Mach It So defeated a second-up Theartofconfusion A (Dan Dube) by a half-length in 1:52.1.

Doctor Butch was third, with More The Better N fading to a money-burning fourth. Caviart Luca (Brennan) settled for the final pay envelope.

For fourth choice Mach It So, an 8-year-old double millionaire Mach Three gelding owned by Bamond Racing and trained by Jeffrey Bamond Jr., it was his seventh win in 22 seasonal starts (career 47-for-142) The exacta paid $91, the triple returned $307.50 and the superfecta paid $789.

Quillen Memorial winner Sunfire Blue Chip came up injured from his assigned eight-hole here.