Levy & Matchmaker finals in spotlight

Harness Racing This Week: Blue Chip Matchmaker and George Morton Levy series finals and consolations, Yonkers Raceway, Yonkers, N.Y.

Schedule of events: The Grand Circuit at Yonkers this week features the $532,000 final and the $100,000 consolation of the George Morton Levy series for open pacers, as well as the $373,000 final and $75,000 consolation in the Blue Chip Matchmaker series for open pacing mares. All four races will take place on Saturday (April 21).

Complete entries for the races can be found by clicking on this link.

Last time: Yonkers Raceway on Saturday night (April 14) concluded the preliminaries, with the fifth round of the George Morton Levy Memorial Pacing Series. A trio of windy, $50,000 events featured many of the best Free-For-Allers in their final shot to be social climbers.

Pole-sitting Long Live Rock (Dan Dube, $16), victimized by a series of bad fortune trips through the series, took matters into his own hooves here. He stuffed his rivals in behind in post position order, then finished his rounds (:27.3, :57.2, 1:25.3, 1:53.3).

Long Live Rock, repelling an early pocket pull by Bettor Memories, owned a 1-1/2 length lead into the lane. He held off a first-up Western Fame (Mark MacDonald) by a half-length. Missile J (Tim Tetrick) rallied, losing the place photo as the 6-5 favorite.

For fourth choice Long Live Rock, a 9-year-old Rocknroll Hanover gelding owned and trained by Rene Allard, it was his third win in nine seasonal starts (1-for-5 in series).

Driver and trainer doubled their pleasure as Keystone Velocity (Dube, $4.50), the defending series champ, prevailed in the second division. Winning the draw, he sat pocketed to Evenin Of Pleasure (Joe Bongiorno) and that one's handiwork of :27.2, :56.2 and 1:24.2.

Keystone Velocity engaged the leader early in the final turn, then went by. He defeated Christen Me N (Tetrick) by 1-1/2 lengths in 1:52.1, with Mach It So (David Miller) third. Evenin Of Pleasure faded to fourth.

For Keystone Velocity, a 10-year-old son of Western Hanover co-owned as Allard Racing by trainer Allard, Kapildeo Singh, Earl Hill Jr. and VIP Internet Stables, it was his first win in five seasonal/series starts.

A down-the-road Killer Martini (Yannick Gingras, $16.40) was quite good in getting off the series schneid in the final division.

From post two, he didn't give much else a shot (:27.1, :56.2, 1:24.2, season's-best 1:52.4). Opening 3-1/2 lengths in and out of the final turn, Killer Martini defeated a from-last Bit Of A Legend N (Jordan Stratton) by 3-3/4 lengths. Dr J Hanover (Brett Miller), as the 4-5 choice, was a conservatively-raced third.

Killer Martini, a 6-year-old Camluck gelding owned and trained by Ricky Bucci, is now 3-for-12 this season (1-for-4 in series).

Complete recaps of the weekend races are available at the Grand Circuit website.

Grand Circuit Standings: In 2018, the Grand Circuit leaders in three categories (driver, trainer and owner) will once again be tracked on a points system (20-10-5 for the top three finishers in divisions/finals and 10-5-2 for the top three finishers in eliminations/legs). Winbak Farms is the sponsor for the 2018 Grand Circuit awards.

Here are the leaders following the past weekend at Yonkers:

Drivers: 1. Tim Tetrick – 109; 2. Jordan Stratton – 89; 3. Yannick Gingras – 79; 4. Jason Bartlett – 77; 5. Daniel Dube – 43.

Trainers: 1. Peter Tritton – 72; 2. Richard Banca – 68; 3. Ron Burke – 66; 4. Jim King Jr. – 49; 5. Rene Allard – 43.

Owners: 1. Vonknoblauch Stable – 62; 2t. Brittany Farms – 25; 2t. Diamond Creek Racing – 25; 4t. Bamond Racing – 24; 4t. Richard Poillucci – 24.

Looking ahead: Grand Circuit action will take place next weekend at Freehold Raceway, with $40,000 (est.) Dexter Cup eliminations (if necessary) for 3-year-old open trotters on Saturday (April 28).

Paul Ramlow