Yonkers: Melander, Grasso have their eyes on the MGM Yonkers Trot prize

There were 14 entries in the box on Monday for the first jewel of trotting's Triple Crown. Two $40,000 eliminations were necessary for Friday (June 23) at MGM Yonkers Raceway, with the top four from each elimination moving forward to the MGM Yonkers Trot final on June 30.

For trainer Marcus Melander winning the MGM Yonkers Trot would be nothing new. Melander has captured two of the last four editions of the race, tallying last year with the filly Joviality and back in 2019 with Gimpanzee.

On the other side of the fence sits veteran trainer John Grasso, who came close to winning the Yonkers Trot at his home track back in 2000 with race favorite Approved Action but fell short. Grasso and his family are part of the history of the racetrack and hope to garner their first Yonkers Trot title with Tillio's Action.

For Melander the approach to winning another MGM Yonkers Trot is a bit different this year as his two entries don't come in with the credentials of his past winners.

"My horses have improved with each start," said Melander. "Last year with Joviality, she was trotting in 1:53 in May getting ready for this race. This year we've qualified them easier and they have improved with each race."

Melander is speaking about Crown and Kenobi, his two MGM Yonkers Trot elimination contenders who arrive with far less notoriety than his past champions, but despite that are legitimate contenders.

"We skipped the Empire Breeders Classic with Crown because we didn't want him to have to race hard four straight weeks," said Melander of the Chapter Seven-sired colt that landed post three in the first $40,000 MGM Yonkers Trot elimination Friday carded as race six. "He's a very good small-track horse and after just one qualifier he's gotten better each start after."

Crown is in what appears to be the weaker of the two divisions with Brian Sears, who was the winning driver behind both of Melander's MGM Yonkers Trot champions. This will be Crown's first appearance over a half-mile track this year, but Melander's confidence is likely a result of the colt winning at Saratoga and Yonkers in New York Sire Stakes action last year.

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Among the six horses Crown will face on Friday is Up Your Deo, one of two Ake Svanstedt-trained colts in the MGM Yonkers Trot field. Up Your Deo went winless as a freshman in eight starts but came off the bench with a solid 1:52 victory in a New Jersey Sire Stakes leg at the Meadowlands on May 20. A son of Walner, Up Your Deo returned to finish third in the final, timed in 1:51. Up Your Deo starts from post four.

Trainer Ron Burke, who captured his lone Yonkers Trot in 2015 with Habitat, hopes to have a potential upsetter in Chapercraz, a gelding he and partners purchased some three weeks ago. Chapercraz put in a huge effort in his Burke debut at Tioga on June 9, crossing the line first in a 1:52 4/5 mile but being placed second after going inside the pylons in the stretch. Chapercraz came back to cut a wicked pace out in the Empire Breeders Classic on June 16 at Vernon Downs, setting the table for a track record victory by Yonkers Trot entrant Kierkegaard K in a third-place finish.

Burke had Joe Bongiorno in the bike for both of those races, but the young driver will sit behind another gelding in this MGM Yonkers Trot elimination division on Friday, with Calderone representing Bongiorno and his trainer and sister Jenn in the Yonkers Trot. Calderone was unraced as a freshman but has quickly shown talent at 3 with a 1:56 1/5 wire-to-wire victory at Yonkers in his half-mile track debut on May 11 a solid indicator. Calderone drew post five.

Father Stosh (post two) was a Pennsylvania Sire Stakes winner on June 3 at The Meadows in a career-best 1:53 4/5 mile and could be a player in the MGM Yonkers Trot given his constancy, as well as the company he's kept. Father Stosh finished third in last year's Matron Stakes at Dover Downs and was a good second behind eventual divisional winner Volume Eight in the Simpson at Harrah's Philadelphia last October.

Grasso's hope for an MGM Yonkers Trot championship requires that his horse makes the final, and that's exactly what was on his mind on Tuesday following the post draw.

"The mission this week is to finish in the top four and make the final," Grasso said. "We've got the home field advantage."

Unlike the other 13 in the field, Tillio's Action is the only horse that has trained at Yonkers throughout his racing career and knows everything about the half-mile track. Grasso also believes Tillio's Action could be the first in a long line of horses he and his family have entered in this Triple Crown event with a chance at the ultimate prize.

"My family has been wanting to win this race for a long time with my father and my uncle," Grasso said.

Tillio's Action drew post five in the second (race seven) $40,000 elimination on Friday, and clearly the race has more horses that have impressive credentials coming into the event.

"I'd say we drew into the tougher division," Grasso said, pointing towards the pole position where Kierkegaard K, a recent Empire Breeders Classic winner who set a track record while torching the Vernon oval in a 1:50 3/5 clocking on June 16, resides.

"I've never had a trotter go faster," said Grasso of Tillio's Action, the second-place finisher in that Empire Breeders Classic division who was individually timed in 1:50 4/5 for the mile.

"Jordan [Stratton] told me once he reached the lead in the stretch he just started to pull himself up," said Grasso. "Then when Ake's horse came along it was too late. He never saw him."

The "he" Grasso was referring to was Tillio's Action, who managed to cross the wire with earplugs still in.

"He had made a few breaks prior to the race, and I don't think Jordan wanted him to break again in the Empire Breeders Classic," said Grasso, explaining Stratton's decision. "I don't think it would have made a difference anyway."

While Tillio's Action is winless this year, that hasn't changed Grasso's thinking about his horse going into the Yonkers Trot or beyond.

"He's still learning and I think he's going to keep improving," Grasso said. "He's going to win a big one at some point; I just don't know when."

Kierkegaard K has been most impressive in two victories this year for trainer-driver Ake Svanstedt. A winner just once (over a half-mile track) as a 2-year-old, the son of Chapter Seven was solid in a Sire Stakes win at Vernon on May 29, trotting effortlessly in 1:53, and then returned on June 16 with his record-setting 1:50 3/5 mile. Svanstedt will be looking for his third Yonkers Trot title, having captured the event in 2021 with Johan Palema and in 2018 with Six Pack.

Melander wasn't thinking of putting Kenobi in the MGM Yonkers Trot a month or so ago, but the son of Father Patrick has emerged nicely in the past few weeks making him a legitimate contender.

"He's been getting better every start," said Melander of Kenobi. "In the Pennsylvania All Stars [May 22] he was going to be in the top three, but he made a break looking to the outside [where the paddock entrance is].

"At The Meadows [June 6, Pennsylvania Sire Stakes] he was very good finishing in 26 4/5 but just too far back," continued Melander. "I was very happy with his last race. He got parked a long way before clearing to the lead."

On June 11 Kenobi was parked three-eighths of a mile before getting the front and then fought a brave fight, ultimately finishing second behind Dexter Cup winner Khaosan Road in a 1:52 3/5 mile. Kenobi drew post four.

Trainer Tony Alagna just celebrated his 2,000th career triumph and hopes to qualify Ari Ferrari J (post seven) for the final. Ari Ferrari J, a $620,000 yearling purchase for owner Ken Jacobs at Lexington in 2021, has prepped well for the Yonkers Trot exclusively at the Meadowlands where he's finished first or second in five of six starts. A 1:52 winner going wire-to-wire on June 9, the Walner-sired colt appears to have speed and staying power.

Perhaps a sleeper of sorts in this field is Southwind Admiral, a son of Tactical Landing that won seven times in 12 starts as a freshman and has been patiently brought along by trainer Ron Coyne Jr. this year. Southwind Admiral drew post two.

The 12-race program on Friday at MGM Yonkers Raceway starts at 7:00 P.M. and also features two eliminations for the Park MGM for 3-year-old filly pacers.