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

Yonkers, NY — When there’s a wallet chock full of cash left without adult supervision, it usually attracts attention. Yonkers Raceway’s Monday evening (Dec. 12) Pick-5 wager served as the wallet, and a double-carryover of $7,260.85 played the part of the unclaimed greenbacks.

Throw in $21,866 of new coin and you had the requisite participation. It left a total pool (after fresh-money takeout) of $23,660.35, give or take a few pennies. The winning combination of 4-Sterling Escort ($7.20), 1-Higgins ($3.70), 3-Made Of Jewels AS ($35.20), 2-Grand Theft ($64) and 3-Settlemoir ($7.40) returned a gift-paying $11,829.75 for both correct half-a-buck wagers.

Not surprisingly, one of the longshot numbers in the sequence was engineered by Matt Kakaley. In the past three racing programs, Kakaley won at mutuels of $46.20, $35.30, $29.60, $29.40 (twice) and $16.40, in addition to other more predictable propositions.