Yonkers Raceway set for January 10 startup

The 240-day 2022 harness racing meet at Yonkers Raceway is set to begin on Monday night (January 10) with an 11-race program. First race post time is now at 6:55 p.m., a change from 7:15 p.m. in prior years.

Monday night’s program is headlined by the $39,000 Open Handicap Pace in the ninth event on the card. Save Me A Dance (post two, Jordan Stratton/Travis Alexander), a 1:48.4 winner in a series final at the Meadowlands on December 18, is the 2-1 morning line favorite and takes on multiple stakes winner No Lou Zing (post eight, Scott Zeron/Nancy Takter, 20-1).

Yonkers Raceway’s stakes action in 2022 begins in March and features the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series for pacing mares and the MGM Borgata Pacing Series for free-for-allers commencing on the 18th and 21st, respectively. Preliminary round action in both of those events continues into April, with the finals set for Monday, April 25.

Grand Circuit action at Yonkers will also happen in May with the Reynolds Stakes for 3-year-old pacers of both sexes, and then the eliminations for the MGM Grand Messenger Stakes, MGM Yonkers Trot, Park MGM Filly Pace, and New York New York Mile for filly trotters will be on the marquee for Friday, June 24. The finals of those events for sophomores will go behind the gate on Friday, July 1, with the Open races guaranteed at $300,000 each. Two-year-old pacers will also invade Yonkers in July for the MGM Springfield, with eliminations on the 8th and the final on the 15th.

No date has been set yet, but the $1 million Yonkers International Trot will be back on the calendar in 2022 as well. The Aria Invitational Pace and the Robert Miecuna Invitational Trot, which are the undercard features of the Yonkers International Trot, will each go for a purse of $500,000.

Other stakes events slated to occur at Yonkers this year include the MGM Rewards Ladies Pacing Series and MGM Rewards Gents Pacing Series in March, and the John Brennan Trotting Series in April. The New York Sire Stakes circuit will also visit Yonkers through the season, but those dates have not been announced as of yet.

To start 2022, Yonkers will operate on a Monday-Friday racing schedule, but beginning in May, Wednesday will switch to a dark day and Saturday will become a live racing night. That format remains in place until October when Saturdays are removed and the Monday-Friday schedule resumes.

For more information visit the Yonkers Raceway website.

From Yonkers Raceway