Can Mac N Cheese rebound in Borgata

Hightstown, NJ — Of the 37 horses entered in Monday’s (March 28) second round of the MGM Borgata Series for older male harness racing pacers at Yonkers Raceway, all but one competed in the opening leg. The one is Mach N Cheese, who had four top-three finishes in last year’s six-week event, including a preliminary-round win and third-place effort in the $514,000 final.

Mach N Cheese started this year slowly, failing to hit the board in three outings, but enters the Borgata off back-to-back wins in conditioned paces at Yonkers. Jenny Melander, who took over the training of Mach N Cheese this season, kept the 7-year-old out of the Borgata’s first round in the hopes of getting another start at a lower level but he was unable to get into a race.

“He had some issues and wasn’t doing well when we first started racing him, so it’s taken him a little longer to get ready,” Melander said. “I wanted to get him one more race before he had to face these horses. Now we have no choice. We can’t sit out another week.

“Having said that, he’s been going five weeks in a row pretty much, so a little bit of a break didn’t hurt him. And if he’s good enough to go through the series, it might just work out. He had a little refreshing.”

Mach N Cheese, owned by Save The Day Stable, has won 19 of 83 career races and $398,183. He has done well at Yonkers during his career, finishing no worse than second in 18 of 38 races, with 11 victories.

“He likes Yonkers a lot,” Melander said. “The last two starts, they’ve been in cheaper classes and it’s tough to take a horse from those classes right into the Borgata, but he’s been pacing fairly fast and doing it the right way. Last time, he had a lot of pressure on him, and he pulled it off (in 1:53). I was happy with all of that.

“He’s a year older, but if he’s anything like he was last year, he should be OK. I do like him a lot. I love his way of racing. He can leave and he can take a bit of pressure. And he’s versatile, you can drive him from the front end or from behind. He’s just a classy horse.”

The MGM Borgata Series features five preliminary rounds from which the eight horses with the highest point totals are eligible to return for the final on April 25.

Morning-line favorites in Monday’s remaining four divisions are, in race order, Lyons Steel (3-1), Dragon Said (2-1), This Is The Plan (5-2), and Covered Bridge (5-2). This Is The Plan, who won last year’s final, and Dragon Said were first-round winners.

The remaining two first-round winners were Western Joe, who is 8-1 from post seven in This Is The Plan’s division, and Leonidas A, who is 3-1 from post seven in Covered Bridge’s division.

“I’m excited to see how (Mach N Cheese) can measure up,” Melander said. “You feel like a bit of an underdog coming in, but it seems like there are times in big races when a horse comes from very little preparation, and it actually suits them well. Hopefully, we’re one of them.”

Racing begins at 6:55 p.m. EDT at Yonkers. For free TrackMaster past performances for Monday’s entire card, click here.

by Ken Weingartner, for the USTA