$40,000 Stake Your Claim Final won in a romp

Despite racing over a sloppy, rain-soaked track with a two second allowance by the Judges, Mc Angel (McArdle) and harness racing driver Yannick Gingras were able to wire the field in winning the $40,000 Final of the Stakes Your Claim Series at Yonkers Raceway Tuesday (March 5).

The final for Fillies and Mares, saw Mc Angel and Gingras leave from post four and fought off a first-over Pure Silky (Austin Siegelman) to the opening quarter in :27.1.

But Pure Silky was hell bent on getting to the lead, but Mc Angel parked her first-over past the half mile marker in :56. And the dog fight continued down the backstretch as Pure Silky was not going away, but Mc Angel was not giving up any ground.

They raced that way past the three-quarters in 1:24.1 before Pure Silky began to tire. Meanwhile, getting the golden two-hole trip was the race favorite Onedefulbeach (Jason Bartlett) and then trying a three-wide move from the back of the pack was Paradise Rock L (Brent Holland).

Around the final turn, Mc Angel was still in control on the front end and once they started down the stretch, she just found another gear and pulled away from the field to win by four open lengths in 1:53. Onedefulbeach was second with Commander Cathy N (George Brennan) third.

MC ANGEL REPLAY

It was the second straight win and third of the year for Mc Angel. The five-year-old mare was claimed from the series last week by trainer Deborah Daguet and the PT Stable, and on Tuesday she paid $4.10 to win.

There was claiming allowed in the final at $60,000 and sure enough, claimed out of the race by the Ginko Stable and Latz A Luck Stable, was Mc Angel.

For complete race results, click here: US Trotting Results

by Steve Wolf, for Harnesslink