Kiwi-bred captures $250,000 MGM Grand Prix Pacing Series

New Zealand-bred Typhoon Banner (Bettor’s Delight) backed up his victory in his division of the final preliminary round last week with a 1:58.3 harness racing win over the mile and a sixteenth distance of the inaugural $250,000 MGM Grand Prix Pacing Series final on Monday night (December 16) at MGM Yonkers Raceway.

Racing over a surface left sloppy by persistent showers, Typhoon Banner and driver Matt Kakaley left out quickly from post five and would be challenged on the outside by favored Coaches Corner (Jason Bartlett), who blasted out from the seven-hole. Typhoon Banner would relent and sit in the pocket, but not until he made Coaches Corner work past a fast 26.2 opening quarter.

Coaches Corner backed down the tempo to just 56 seconds at the half and then picked it back up to 1:24.1 at three-quarters as Seven Colors (Scott Zeron), who went first-over from sixth before the half, stalled out in third. Coaches Corner maintained command on the final bend also, but Typhoon Banner was poised right on Bartlett’s helmet and ready to strike.

Kakaley wheeled Typhoon Banner off the pylons before they turned into the stretch, and Typhoon Banner and Coaches Corner were side-by-side at the 1:51.4 mile marker. From there to the wire, Typhoon Banner proved better than Coaches Corner, as he went by him and on to the victory by three-quarters of a length. Coaches Corner and Adam Twelve, a pair of Per Engblom trainees, were second and third from the Andrew Harris-trained duo of El Rey (Brett Beckwith) and Seven Colors.

An 8-year-old gelding bred by Banner Bloodstock Ltd., Typhoon Banner is trained by Joe Bongiorno for owners Philip Steinberg, JB Racing and Barbara Bongiorno Stb LLC. This was his 25th career win, he has now earned $466,735 and he paid $12.00 to win as a 5-1 offering. He keyed a $25.60 exacta and a $121.00 trifecta.

Driver Anthony Napolitano was the other star on Monday night at Yonkers as he won the first race with Caviart Sargent and then the seventh with Blue Hunt, and the victory with Blue Hunt was the 4,000th of his career.

Napolitano, who joined the Yonkers colony as a regular in September, is closing in on a lifetime-best season in terms of both victories and earnings. He had 295 trips to the winner’s circle in 2009 and has 271 thus far in 2024 and has banked $3,440,237 this year, just shy of his 2018 sum of $3,463,634.

This is closing week of the meet at MGM Yonkers Raceway. Racing will be conducted Tuesday through Friday to wrap up the calendar, with post time each night at 7 p.m. (EST).

For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.

From MGM Yonkers Raceway