The pocket was the place to be last night at Yonkers Raceway as both the $415,820 Messenger and the $229,440 Lady Maud were won by pocket-rocket pacers.
In the Messenger, for 3-year-olds, driver Mark MacDonald left with Bolt The Duer (2-1) who fought to get the lead from 3-2 favorite Hillbilly Hanover.
But Bolt The Duer wouldn’t have the lead long as MacDonald chose to let Pet Rock (5-2, George Brennan) take the lead approaching the quarter pole.
“He’s really tough when he gets in the two hole,” MacDonald said. “The one to beat I think was Pet Rock and George Brennan is always tough on the front end, so I figured he’d be the horse to beat and to follow.”
Brennan kept Bolt The Duer in the pocket until mid-stretch when he moved the Peter Foley trainee into the passing lane to secure the half-length victory over Pet Rock in 1:51 2/5, the fastest Messenger ever contested on a half-mile track. Hillbilly Hanover finished third.
“There’s no telling how fast he could go following horses,” Foley said. “He might be able to go [1]:46 and change on a big track. He just loves to follow horses.”
Bolt The Duer paid $6 to win and gave MacDonald his first win in this triple crown event.
In the Lady Maud, three fillies were less than a length apart at the wire, and when the photo finish was checked, it was the pocket-sitting Bettor B Lucky that scored the nose victory in a stakes record time of 1:52 1/5.
Trained by Ron Burke and driven by Jim Morrill, Jr., Bettor B Lucky (7-2) left from the rail and yielded to Economy Terror (5-1) approaching the quarter pole.
Morrill chose to keep Bettor B Lucky chilly in the pocket until the stretch, where he challenged Economy Terror to gain the win by the smallest of margins. Handsoffmycookie (5-1) finished third.
“You can’t say enough about the rail on a half-mile track,” Morrill said. “I was hoping that would be the way it would go down to sit the two-hole to that filly and everything went as planned and tonight was meant to be.”
Bettor B Lucky returned $9.90 to win and gave Morrill his third win in the event. Morrill previously won divisions of the race in 1992 and ’93.
Romantic Moment, the 5-2 favorite, came first over approaching the half but never got closer than third in the stretch and managed to get a check finishing fifth.