By DEBORAH A. LITTLE
Posted: 4:14 am
June 29, 2008
Stephane Bouchard has won five straight driving titles at Yonkers Raceway, but last night he won the most important race of his career at his home track, capturing the $605,854 Yonkers Trot.
Driving 2-1 second choice Napoleon, Bouchard put his horse on the lead, where he stayed until the field turned for home, when post-time favorite Holiday Credit (Ron Pierce, 8-5) took command.
But coming through the stretch, Holiday Credit went off stride and Napoleon hung on to score a head victory over Make It Happen in 1:57 1/5.
"I thought [Holiday Credit] was going to win the race until halfway down the stretch and I saw his horse get weak and rough, so I kept driving mine and we kept going," Bouchard said.
It was an emotional win for Bouchard, coming on the day of his son Oliver's 18th birthday.
"For a race like this, you need a good horse and all the luck - and tonight it happened," he said. "I won it for my son."
Napoleon's trainer Noel Daley watched the action from the paddock.
"I was praying to be second half way down the lane and then I saw things falling apart and they hit the line and I still didn't really know where we'd finished," Daley said. "I expected it to be a really close race. It came down to a little bit of luck and we had it."
The Yonkers Trot is the first jewel in the trotting Triple Crown. The Hambletonian on Aug. 2 at the Meadowlands is the second, with the Kentucky Futurity following on Oct. 4 at Lexington's Red Mile.
Napoleon paid $6.00, $3.70 and $3. Make It Happen returned $4.30 and $3.60, while third-place finisher Big Apple Deli paid $3.90.
