Yonkers: Posts drawn for opening round of Borgata, Matchmaker
Post positions have been drawn for the opening round of Yonkers Raceway’s Blue Chip Matchmaker and MGM Borgata Pacing Series.
The two-time defending series champ---and current Horse of the Year—Shartin N returns to town for her first visit since winning last season’s finale, included in a 42-for-57, $2.1 million career resume.
The 7-year-old Down Under daughter of Tintin In America began her season with a 1:50 flat win at Dover.
‘Ally’ also wasted no time getting her picture taken in 2020, a 1:49 4/5 effort across the river. The 6-year-old daughter of Bettor’s Delight enters with 26 wins in 73 career starts ($1.8 million).
Friday night’s second division includes last season’s Matchmaker runner-up Bettor Joy N (Tetrick, post 4) and Apple Bottom Jeans (Corey Callahan, post 6). Both ladies find their way back from Delaware for this series, having finished third (Apple Bottom Jeans) and fourth (Bettor Joy N), respectively, to Shartin N a week ago.
The final Matchmaker get-together is led by Seaswift Joy N (Jim Marohn Jr., post 2), a 7-year-old Down Under Bettor’s Delight miss fresh off a 10-win, $263,000 2019 season.
Saturday night (March 14) finds four consecutively-contested, $50,000 Borgata (nee George Morton Levy Memorial) divisions, going as races 5 through 8.
The opening event of Free-For-All lads features the rock-solid None Bettor A (Tetrick, post 2) meeting up with Rodeo Rock (Eric Goodell, post 4) and millionaire-in-waiting Sintra (George Brennan, post 7).
The second division is led by the series champ of a year ago, Western Fame (Dan Dube, post 7). The 7-year-old son of Western Ideal won seven races and in excess of $704,000 last season.
Saturday night’s third Borgata event includes weekly Local Open Handicap standout Jack’s Legend N (Jason Bartlett, post 4), Trump Nation (Brennan, post 6) and Lyons Steel (Pat Lachance, post 7).
The fourth and final grouping goes through the red-hot Backstreet Shadow (Tetrick, post 2), who eyes a fifth consecutive victory, the first four all down at Dover.
Both the Blue Chip Matchmaker and Borgata offer five preliminary rounds leading to finals set for Saturday night, Apr. 18.
Early program pages for the Friday/Saturday series races accompany this release. Changes shall be made Tuesday night (March 10th).
-edited release (Frank Drucker for Yonkers)