Favoured Krispy Apple (Jason Bartlett, $5.30) left Yonkers Raceway a beast and returned just as ornery Friday night, winning the featured $48,000 Filly and Mare Open Handicap Pace.
The 8-5 choice, ordered outside of her seven rivals, tucked into fifth...a job made much easier since the three horses directly inside of her were all off the gate.
Set Me Up (George Brennan) laid down the law early (:27.3, :56), not seeing any competition until Alhambra (Larry Stalbaum) took out of third nearing the 1:24.1 three-quarters. That allowed Krispy Apple to grab a tow.
Set Me Up owned a tenuous lead into the lane, but the gate crashers were arriving. It was Krispy Apple—back in Westchester for the first time since late May—going widest and fastest. She whipped a pocket-sitting Road Bet (Dan Dube) by a length in a season’s-best 1:52.1. Third went to Caribbean Rose N (Brian Sears), with Alhambra and Set Me Up also settling for the small change.
For Krispy Apple, a seven-year-old daughter of Western Ideal co-owned by Joe Davino and Bamond Racing and trained by Jeff Bamond Jr., it was her fifth win (fourth consecutive at Yonkers) in a dozen seasonal starts. The exacta paid $28.20, with the triple returning $130.50.
The Raceway’s live season continues Saturday night (post time 7:10 p.m.), with a pair of $25,000 eliminations for the Lawrence B. Sheppard Pace (two-year-old colts and geldings).
(Yonkers Raceway)