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

Yonkers, NY — We interrrupt regularly-scheduled programming to bring you another Special Report.

A week ago, Special Report ran away and hid in his local debut, wiring a winners over crowd from the eight hole in 1:51.3. That effort established a track record for aged geldings, a record which Special Report liked so much, he played Beat the Clock, Encore Edition.

Again from behind the eight ball, only this time in the featured St. Patrick’s Night $35,000 Open Handicap Pace, Special Report was again…well, special.

With regular driver Larry Stalbaum at the controls, the 5-year-old Keystone Raider gelding was caught four-wide leaving, getting early company in the form of Hop Sing (Eric Abbatiello), John Adams (Eric Goodell) and Rair Earth (Steve Smith).

That fearsome foursome resulted in Special Report — the 11-10 favorite — being pushed to a wicked :26.2 opening quarter-mile before settling on the lead. From there, Stalbaum just him roll to the tune of a :54 half-mile and three-quarters in 1:22.

Hop Sing, making his first purse try in two months, bottomed out chasing, leaving John Adams to try his luck from third. However, all that one could do was cosmetically close an eight length deficit entering the lane to 6-1/4 lengths at the wire. Special Report belted the beam in 1:51.2, one tick better than his record-book revision of last Saturday night and the new fastest mile since the Raceway re-opened last November 17. (FYI: The all-age track record remains Silver Almahurst’s 1:50.4, which has held up for nearly 14 years).

Whispers Spy (Jim Meittinis) was a gapped-out third, while Bay Sign (Pat Berry) and Cam’s Fool (Brendan Johnson) also chased in vein, but at least they were paid for the privilege.

Special Report, owned by Hugo Iodice and trained by Kim Asher, returned $4.30 for his fifth victory in seven seasonal starts. He led a $13 exacta and $65.50 triple.

“He’s just been phenomenal,” Stalbaum said, before adding that “all the credit goes to the gentleman who broke him out in Michigan, J.D. Cobb. He just taught him to do everything the right way and let him learn against horses he could beat.

“If you look at his win record (now 36-for-64 lifetime, earnings approaching $280,000), it’s just amazing. You can stop him or start him at any time. He’s probably a better come-from-behind horse, but not from that post tonight. I wasn’t real concerned about the fractions. I knew he was the best in there, and I don’t think we’ve seen his best yet.”

Special Report’s season begins in earnest here in the George Morton Levy Memorial Pacing Series, which gets underway Saturday night, March 31. He’s one of 55 nominees for the Free-For-All series. Then, “he’s staked to about everything, and a few tracks have asked us about coming to their invitationals,” Stalbaum said.

Saturday night’s 11-race card also included the third and final preliminary leg of the Sagamore Hill Pacing Series for 3- and 4-year-old colts and geldings. A quartet of $12,500 divisions went to post, with the winners’ shares going to:

• Southwind Tabor,g,4 (by Bettor’s Delight); owner Mario D’Abruzzo/trainer Dennis Laterza/driver Greg Grismore; (season’s best) 1:55.3/$7.20.
• Four Star Tommy,g,4 (by Jate Lobell); co-owners Hylight Stable, Henkel, Shoup/trainer Mickey Burke/driver Berry; (season’s best) 1:54.1/$7.00.
• Dragon’s Yankee,g,4 (by Dragon Again); co-owners Burke, Pistochini, Chiovetta/trainer Burke/driver Grismore; (season’s best) 1:55.1/$3.40.
• Category Six,g,4 (by Western Hanover); co-owners Umholtz Racing, Umholtz, Kennedy Sports/trainer Ron Coyne, Jr./driver Stephane Bouchard; 1:55.2/$3.10.

Oh, by the way, Grismore escorted five winners for the second time in the last three racing programs. After grabbing the quintet Wednesday night, he won those two Sagamore dashes Saturday in addition to Northern Edge ($14.20) in the $16,500 opener, Armbro Cayenne ($9.90) in the $30,000 third race winners over event, and Rob Roy Mattgregor ($3.30) in the $22,000 finale.

Live racing is currently offered at Yonkers with six programs per week — Monday through Saturday nights at 7:40 p.m. The ’07 stakes schedule continues next weekend, with Friday night’s $64,000 final of the Petticoat Pacing Series (3- and 4-year-old fillies amd mares) and Saturday night’s $70,000 finale of the Sagamore Hill Pacing Series for those aforementioned 3- and 4-year-olds of the male persuasion.

Harness and thoroughbred simulcasting is available seven days a week, while Empire City’s nearly 5,500 video gaming machines are in play daily from 10:00 a.m.-2:00 a.m.