YONKERS, NY, Saturday, September 19, 2015 – Yonkers Raceway took a Saturday night stakes siesta, ceding the marquee to the overnight harness racing occupants. Luminosity (George Brennan, $3.50) and Crombie A (Brent Holland, $6.80) won their respective $48,000 Open Handicaps for trotters and pacers.
Luminosity, as the 3-4 choice, had the identical, unimpeded assigned eight-hole path to the lead that Krispy Apple did in Friday night's distaff derby. Here, Luminosity controlled the crowd through intervals of :28.1, :56.4, 1:25.2 and 1:54.
The margin, a length-and-a-half entering the lane, was a length-and-three-quarters at the end. Chasing from the pocket was pole-sitting For You Almostfree (Jason Bartlett), with UVA Hanover (Jordan Stratton) a three-hole third.
Watkins (Pat Lachance) and Not Afraid (Dan Dube) rounded out the payees.
For Luminosity, a 5-year-old Cash Hall gelding co-owned (as Burke Racing) by (trainer) Ron Burke and Weaver Bruscemi, it was his 11th win in 2 seasonal starts. The exacta paid $44.40, with the triple returning $152.50.
As for Crombie A, who won the 1-thru-7 draw in the weekly pacing feature, he worked out a second-over trip to snap the leading, 9-10 choice Somewhere in LA (Dube) by a half-length in 1:51.1. The latter kept the ball rolling (:26.3, :54.4, 1:23), taking a length-and-a-half lead in and out of the final turn.
Eight-hole-assigned Take it Back Terry (Brennan) flew home to snatch third, with Big N Bad (Eric Carlson) and a pocketed Dream Out Loud N (Tyler Buter) settling for the remainder.
For second choice Crombie A, a 9-year-old Down Under son of Life Sign co-owned (as Allard Racing) by (trainer) Rene Allard, Kapildeo Singh and Albert Abdala, he's now 7-for-10- this season. The exacta paid $17.60, with the triple returning $134.
Crombie A owns a share the (1:50.1) all-age track record, taken in late July.
Nest Saturday, it's New York Night of Champions (Part II), with four, $225,000 sire stakes finals for 2-year-olds.
Frank Drucker