A Canadian-owned colt remained perfect in four starts as Yonkers Raceway hosted the $202,599 New York Sire Stakes Jim Crawford Pace for two-year-old colts and geldings on Tuesday night.
Three divisions - at $67,933, $67,933 and $66,933 - comprised the competition.
The evening’s first division saw a formful favourite in Southwind Masimo (Pat Lachance, $2.60) roll off cover to run his record to four wins in as many starts. From Post 5, he tracked Azorean Art (Larry Stalbaum), then blew past that one to widen out by 2-1/4 lengths in 1:55.1. Dees Rocketman (Brian Sears) was third.
For Southwind Masimo, a Bettors Delight colt trained by his driver for co-owners Hudson Standardbred Stable and Conrad Leber, he took over the points lead in this division.
As was the case Monday night, driver Yannick Gingras won two of the evening’s three sire stakes events.
In the second division, he went the distance - from post position four - with Cartoon Daddy ($4.90), holding off some unwanted advances from 32-1 proposition American Crossroad (Scott Zeron). The former kept the latter at bay, winning by three-quarters of a length in 1:54.4. Berkley (George Brennan), at 78-1, was third, with 51-1 Ultimate G (Eric Carlson) fourth.
Cartoon Daddy’s job was made much easier when 7-10 fave, The Spy (Tim Tetrick), broke in the first turn and division points leader coming into the night Americanprimetime (Tyler Buter) misbehaved while making a second move.
For second choice Cartoon Daddy, a son of Art Major co-owned (as Burke Racing Stable LLC) by (trainer) Ron Burke and Joe DiScala, Jr., it was his fourth win in a half-dozen seasonal starts.
“The best thing about him is his gait,” DiScala said. “We wanted a horse who could get around the small tracks, and he’s been very impressive.”
Gingras and Bet You ($2.80) won the final statebred grouping, moving to the lead from Post 2 before the half and closing it out in 1:55.1. The final margin was a wrapped-up length-and-three-quarters over 25-1 Yippity Hanover (Tetrick), with 42-1 Betting Exchange (Jim Morrill, Jr.) third. A breaking K Ryan Bluechip eliminated himself as the second choice.
For Bet You, a son of Bettors Delight trained by Jimmy Takter for co-owners Christina Takter, Jim and John Fielding and Joyce McClelland, he’s now 2-for-5 in ’14, with both wins coming here.
“Ideally, you’d like to race these two-year-olds out of a hole, but the way the races shaped up, I had no choice but to put them on the lead,” Gingras said. “Cartoon Daddy tends to wait on other horses a bit, but he dug in when he had to.”
(Yonkers Raceway)