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| History Surprisingly Repeats In The 2024 MGM Borgata Series Final At Yonkers |
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| By
STEVE PHILLIPS
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USTA/Ken Weingartner |
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HELLABALOU
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Mineola, NY:
The MGM Borgata Series has become the unofficial launching pad for harness racing’s stakes season.
The six-week series offers one of the highest purses of the year for older pacers. The 2024 final went for $457,000: a huge purse for April harness racing.
In order to qualify for the lucrative final, horses must earn qualifying points in the five preliminary legs.
In 2023, Hellabalou barely managed to garner enough points to qualify for the final. He had the eighth highest point total, with the top 8 making it to the big dance. So what happened? Hall-of-Famer Yannick Gingras brought the Sweet Lou 5-year-old in from off of a wicked pace to nail the leaders at the wire. In the long history of the Borgata Series (which began at Roosevelt Raceway as the George Morton Levy Series), the 47-1 odds that rewarded the Hellabalou faithful was the biggest winning payout the series final has ever produced.
So what does the Ron Burke-trained now 6-year-old stallion do for an encore? He repeats his tenuous journey to the Monday night final with the 8th highest total amount of qualifying points. It took a well-driven second in the last preliminary leg, coupled with some bad luck for a couple of other contenders, to put Hellabalou in a position to defend his title.
Things weren’t promising, though. The series had been dominated by a pair of legitimate top stakes horses. These two have given the likes of Bulldog Hanover & Allywag Hanover a serious challenge over the past couple of years. Desperate Man actually won divisional honors as a three-year-old over the great Bulldog in their native Canada. On paper, the ’24 Borgata final appeared to be a 2-horse race.
Unfortunately for the two big stars, the race was not run on paper. They had to get out on the Westchester racing oval to prove themselves. Scott Zeron, driving the mercurial 4-5 favorite Linedrive Hanover and Matt Kakaley behind the sensational Desperate Man hooked up in an old-fashioned speed duel that would have made Ben Hur jealous. Kakaley pulled his mount early, opting to go for the lead before the half. But Zeron had something else in mind. He would not relinquish the lead. Discretion may have been the better part of valor in this case, as the heavily favored pair passed the half-mile marker in a stunningly fast 53:1!
By the time they reached the final turn, the two superstars had had enough. Going 3/4s in 1:21.1 on a half-mile track is a bit much to ask of any horse on a cool early-season evening. Coaches Corner looked like he might be the one to take advantage of the front-end craziness that had transpired, as he moved to the outside to confront the leg-weary pair. However, it was Hellabalou and Gingras that swept three-wide with an aggressive move in the last bend. With a pair of tired warriors separating him from the field, Hellabalou drew off to a 2-length win over Coaches Corner. After about as ill-fated a trip as could be imagined, Desperate Man held on for third.
Compared to 2023, Hellabalou’s victory was relatively predictable. Still, his backers were delighted to collect 11-1 odds on Borgata’s repeat champion. The Sweet Lou stallion has now banked $1,324,455 in his career. With the breeding community falling over themselves to recruit sons of Sweet Lou to the stallion ranks, it will be interesting to see where Hellabalou winds up after this year. Of course, there’s still a long season up ahead, and the competition will certainly heat up as the weather does the same.
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