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

Yonkers, NY — At 2, he won Grand River’s Battle of Waterloo. At 3, he’s a Yonkers Raceway track record holder. For a horse that owns all of four career victories, he’s certainly living right.

Katy Gazzini photo

Simple Kinda Man established a new track standard of 1:51.2 on Monday evening at Yonkers Raceway.

Locally-debuting Simple Kinda Man (Jim Marohn Jr., $6.10) found his way into the annals Monday night (Sept. 17), wiring his way to happiness in 1:51.2. That effort, in the $16,000, seventh race pace, is the new Westchester watermark for 3-year-old geldings, wiping away Gokudo Hanover’s 1:51.3 in 2015.

From post position five, Simple Kinda Man cruised through intervals of :26.3, :55.1 and 1:23, then finished it off by four lengths for just his second win in 13 seasonal starts.

“I’ve had him about 10 days,” trainer Bruce Saunders said. “The owners (M&L of Delaware) are hands-on and they said to race him with an open bridle because he can be a runaway. I saw the line where he was down in three-quarters in (1):21.2 in Canada, so I knew he was fast.

“The plugs were in and I spoke to Jimmy (Marohn Jr.) after and he never felt as if the horse was getting away from him, so I’m very happy with the effort.”