Penultimate rounds of Matchmaker, Levy on tap this weekend
April 4, 2019,Yonkers, NY — This weekend, Yonkers Raceway hosts the fourth — or penultimate — rounds of both the Blue Chip Matchmaker and George Morton Levy Memorial Pacing Series.
Friday night (Apr. 5), the lasses go in three $40,000 Matchmaker events, consecutively carded as races seven through nine.
The opening division cries out ‘two-speed number’ with pole-sitting Don’t Think Twice A (Jason Bartlett) and Feelin’ Red Hot (George Brennan, post three). The former owns a Matchmaker win and pair of seconds, while the latter — just in time for the Stanley Cup Playoffs — eyes a hat trick.
The second event sees another three-peat wannabe in Bettor Joy N (Tim Tetrick, post seven), starting outside her foes.
Ideal Lifestyle A (Brennan, post one) has chased home Bettor Joy N the last couple of tries.
The final Matchmaker grouping rolls through defending champion Shartin N (Tetrick, post four) as the millionaire is looking for her third preliminary victory.
Seaswift Joy N (Jim Marohn Jr., post eight), yet another series two-fer, has won four of her five local starts.
Saturday evening’s (Apr. 6) fourth foray of the Levy was drawn and quartered into $50,000 divisions (races five, seven, eight and 10).
The first get-together asks the musical question: “Can Pacing Major N (Jordan Stratton, post two) do it again?”
Fresh off last week’s 67-1 stunner — and first board finish of the season — the Major hooks other round winners in Endeavor (Bartlett, post three) and JJ Flynn (Tetrick, post four).
Saturday’s second event fins More The Better N (Scott Zeron, post six) in search of a third series win, but stuck with a first poor draw.
Anythingforlove A (Joe Bongiorno, post one) was an opening-round winner and figures to cut this mile.
The third group is led by Lyons Steel (Stratton, post six), who threw down the fastest mile (1:50.4) of the local season a week ago.
Ideal Jimmy (Brent Holland, post eight) won his first two series tries, but ran out of racetrack a week ago.
The Downtown Bus (Zeron, post four) and The Wall (Bongiorno, post five) also have preliminary wins to their credit.
Saturday night’s final division is led by two-round winner Western Fame (Dan Dube, post three), who convincingly defeated Dr J Hanover (Tetrick, post six) when they opposed one another a week ago.
First post for both cards is the usual 6:50 p.m.
For finalized program pages for the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series please click here. For the programs for the George Morton Levy Memorial Pacing Series please click here.